This week has seen some big announcements from Yahoo and today is no different, Yahoo has just announced many interesting updates to their photo sharing platform Flickr.  According to Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s Tumblr:

Photos tell the stories — stories we’re inspired to relive, share with our friends, or capture simply to express ourselves. Collecting these moments is a part of our everyday. Since 2005, Flickr has become synonymous with inspiring imagery. Today, we’re thrilled to take Flickr even further with a beautiful, completely re-imagined experience that puts photos front and center. When it comes to photography, technology and its limits shouldn’t hinder the experience. So we’re also giving our Flickr users one terabyte of space — for free. That’s enough for a lifetime of photos — more than 500,000 original, full-resolution, pixel-perfect, brilliant photos. Flickr users will never have to worry about running out of space.

Furthermore for $50 per year users will be able to remove the adds as well as gain access to different analytics tools, if you need more space (Really 1 TB isn’t enough?) then $500 per year doubles storage to 2 TB.

iOS users might remember that the iOS Flickr iPhone app  was redesigned in March, and according to the website since this major update Flickr uploads have increased by 25%.

Smart Food Scale Makes iPad Even More Kitchen-Friendly - The Smart Food Scale is a Kickstarter project and comes from Chef Sleeve, the folks behind the Chef Sleeve, the ultimate wipe-clean iPad prophylactic.

Apple counts down to 50 billion app downloads with all-time best sellers, $10,000 gift card - Apple’s doing another iTunes countdown, this time to the 50 billionth app downloaded. Along with the chance to win a $10,000 iTunes gift card, Apple also greets you with the all time most downloaded free and paid apps.

Apple Releases iOS 6.1.4 for iPhone 5 With New Speakerphone Audio Profile - Apple today released a minor iOS 6.1.4 update, bringing an updated audio profile for speakerphone. The new version, which arrives as Build 10B350, appears to only be for the iPhone 5.

Rare Apple-1 to be auctioned off this month for expected $261K to $392K - One of only six known working Apple-1 computers will be put up for auction later this month by German auction house Breker, which expects the unit to fetch between $261,000 and $392,000.

How to Troubleshoot the Four Most Common “Oh Sh*t” Mac Problems - For the most part, the problems you run into on a Mac are pretty universal across all versions of OS X, but we’ll stick to the most modern operating systems here: Lion and Mountain Lion (most of these tips should also work with Snow Leopard though)

iOS app flagged for malware, and why you shouldn’t worry - An iOS game called Simply Find It, when run through BitDefender’s virus scanner, reportedly returns a positive result for Trojan.JS.iframe.BKD. This has drawn into question the effectiveness of Apple’s App Store approval process. Is this something that Apple should have caught, and is it something App Store customers should be worried about?

Apple’s bond plan estimated to save $9.2 billion in taxes - Just how much is Apple’s new, six-part, $17 billion bond plan going to end up saving the company in taxes it would have needed to pay if it used its overseas cash pile?

Is Apple doing enough to help prevent iPhone thefts? - Last fall, the U.S. national database for stolen cell phones went live. The goal of the database, which was a joint venture between several carriers, was to make it harder for stolen handsets to be activated on US networks.

Apple’s iOS 7 said to be visually different, flat - It’s no secret Apple plans to show off the next major version of iOS at its annual developers conference in June, though what exactly will be different about the new software has been fuzzy.

Songza 3.0 update available now - We mentioned Songza’s iOS app last year around when it came out, and the music sharing service has just updated the app to version 3.0.

Ive’s iOS 7 Overhaul Reportedly Borrows OS X Engineers, Risks Delays - Remember how we announced earlier this week that Apple chief designer Jony Ive aims to strip iOS 7 of the operating system’s skeuomorphic elements?

Creating complex smart playlists in iTunes - Creating playlists in iTunes can be as simple as dragging a few songs, or as complex as creating smart playlists that refer to other playlists and use nested conditions to pick songs that meet specific criteria.

Adobe is working on some sort of Lightroom app for mobile devices, the company’s group product manager Tom Hogarty previewed an early version of the application on a recent appearance of The Grid, an online photography show hosted by legendary photographer Scott Kelby.

As a photographer I must admit I am personally really interested in an app for the iPad, not only would it enable me to work on my RAW images while on the go, furthermore it would allow you to sync your changes with your computer back home.

Here is a list of the features announced:

• The ability to edit photos taken in raw photo formats, including Lightroom develop-module parameters like exposure, clarity, shadows, highlights, and white balance.
• Cloud-synchronized editing so that changes made on a tablet arrive on the same photo on the PC.
• The ability to zoom all the way to 100 percent for checking photo focus and details.

Adobe still hasn’t decided whether this will be a sold as a part of their creative cloud or if it will be an individual app.

Last week the tickets for the WWDC sold out in just two minutes leaving thousands without tickets, therefore on Friday Apple announced that the company will be “hitting the road” this fall with Tech Talks set to take place in a number of cities.

On their website they state:

Enthusiasm for WWDC 2013 has been incredible, with tickets selling out in record time. For those who can’t join us in San Francisco, you can still take advantage of great WWDC content, as we’ll be posting videos of all our sessions during the conference. We’ll also be hitting the road this fall with Tech Talks in a city near you. Hope to see you there.

The last time Apple held a Tech Talks tour was back in 2011, back then the company visited the following cities: New York, Seattle, Austin, Berlin, London, Rome, Beijing, Seoul, and Sao Paolo.

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Analyst Predicts “Killer App” For The iPhone 5S, Maybe iRadio Or Mobile Payments - Like a psychic, the bread and butter of most analysts is to make wild predictions to their clients and then, when they don’t come true, pretend like those predictions were never made to begin with. When that fails, another ploys analysts, like psychics, sometimes use is overly vague predictions that could literally be fulfilled by anything.

LinkedIn buys Pulse for $90M,moves deeper into content creation - In a tweet and subsequent blog post, LinkedIn announced on Thursday that it has acquired popular news aggregation and reader Pulse, with the buy signaling in no uncertain terms that the business networking giant is moving toward online content.

Morgan Stanley adjusts its Apple numbers – up and down - Like many Wall Street analysts who follow Apple (AAPL), Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty likes to issue estimates for the current quarter the day after the company reports the previous quarter’s results — and then stick with those numbers for the next three months.

Samsung Galaxy Mega is official and comes in 6.3- and 5.8-inch sizes - We knew Samsung was planning more devices, but we didn’t expect the arrival of two Galaxy Mega smartphones at the same time. Both are apparently headed to Europe some time next month, continuing to prove that Samsung are willing to test out any screen-size.

Verizon CEO takes credit for convincing Steve Jobs to make iPhone 5 LTE, says half of wireless traffic is now video - At NAB, Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam told attendees that half of his network’s wireless traffic is used for downloading video. McAdam reportedly added that he expects video to take over 2/3 of the Verizon network by 2017. The CEO thanks the carrier’s investments in LTE technology for making this happen.

Apple Hiring an Engineer to Investigate Advanced Display Technologies, Including Flexible Displays - A job listing posted by Apple earlier this month indicates the company is indeed looking at using flexible displays in future products, along with high optical efficiency LCD and AMOLED units.

Apple Macs Are Getting Super-Fast - Rumor says that Apple will include 802.11ac wireless in its latest OS X Mountain Lion operating system. This is a much faster version of wireless technology than previous versions, and allows for extended ranges and faster speeds.

Low-end iPhone Part Leak:Photo of Low-end iPhone Part Leaks - The first photographic evidence of an upcoming new entry-level iPhone from Apple (AAPL) may have just been revealed.

French minister riled by Apple ban on app - France’s digital industry minister has become embroiled in a dispute between Apple and a French start-up, as she accused the US technology giant of being “extremely brutal” for banning the smaller company’s service from its App Store.

Despite layoffs, Ambrosia says it’s still in business- Ambrosia Sofware—the maker of Snapz Pro X, Soundboard, and other popular utilities and games on Apple platforms—on Thursday fended off suggestions it was going out of business, even as employees of the company reported being laid off.

HTC profit slump confirms Samsung and Apple as smartphone leaders - The divergent fortunes within the $200bn (£130bn) global smartphone market were laid bare this week when Taiwan’s HTC reported a 98% slump in profits, confirming Samsung and Apple‘s seemingly unassailable lead over their diminished rivals.

SimCity Cheetah Speed returns, Mac version in June - the Mac version of SimCity will be released on June 11. The Mac release will be available exclusively via Origin, with no plans for a retail version. As a nice bonus, those who own the PC version will automatically have access to the Mac version. Likewise, Mac players will be able to download the PC version at no extra cost.

12 iPhone Tricks You Didn’t Know Your iPhone Could Do - Discovering new iPhone features is a great way to spice things up when interacting with your device. Not only that, but finding out about a new feature could even make your iPhone-using experience more productive.

The Ten Life Lessons From Steve Jobs We Should Never Forget - After Steve Jobs died, his friend Larry Ellison was asked by Kara Swisher what were the key things that we – regular people – could learn from him.

Apple And T-Mobile Begin Taking Pre-Orders For iPhone 5 - Apple and T-Mobile have begun pre-orders for the iPhone 5. The launch date for the iPhone 5 is scheduled for April 12th, so if you’re eager to jump the gun on the T-Mobile iPhone 5, here’s your chance.

Apple reportedly closing in on ‘iRadio’ deals, still aiming for summer launch - CNET takes a look at some of the recent talks between Apple and the record labels recording Apple’s plans for a streaming, radio-like service. According to the report, Apple is working to strike deals with both the Warner and Universal Music groups within the week, but Sony would still be one the major holdouts.

France Telecom CEO says iPhone sales threatened by lack of cheaper option - European consumers are cutting back spending in the face of a fragile economy, and the CEO of one telecom says that could signal tough times ahead for Apple’s iPhone.

Apple Patents A Convertible MacBook Design, And Street View Navigation That Can Go Inside Buildings - A couple of new Apple patent applications published today (via AppleInsider) show how the company might be thinking about competing with recent innovations from other big tech companies with similar, but different designs.

Apple’s planned ‘spaceship’ HQ will reportedly cost $5B -  Apple’s planned second corporate campus is turning out to be a headache. That’s according to Bloomberg Businessweek, which profiled the development process of the proposed “spaceship” building, an unusual structure shaped like a doughnut or ring.

3 Years of the iPad - The iPad launched three years ago yesterday, and it was a monumental day in the short history of tablet computers. Apple investors have been on a wild ride since 2010, but let’s take a look at how one of Apple’s most innovative products has fared over the past few years.

Why disc drives are an endangered species - Could the phrase “burn a disc” soon be interred in the computing graveyard, resting peacefully alongside 8-bit graphics and the chirping, buzzing hum of a dial-up modem?

iOS 7 Running Behind, Rumored to Have Significant Visual Makeover - In a Branch chat, Daring Fireball’s Jon Gruber says that, according to what he’s heard, iOS 7 is running behind schedule and that it will bring a significant user interface (UI) refresh.

iPad Price Cuts Mean New Models Can’t Be Far Behind - It’s been a scant six months since the announcement of the iPad Mini and the fairly superfluous iPad 4, but it looks like the new generations might be on the horizon. Walmart, Best Buy, and MacMall have all slashed their prices on the devices, as good a sign as any that new ones are on the way.

70+ Essential Mac Apps For OS X - So a little while ago I had to do a clean install of OSX after upgrading to Lion. I took the opportunity to go through all my apps (applications) and see which I actually really needed. In the process I gained about 40gb of hard disk space (!) and put together this list of essential applications for the Mac.

Apple adds age rating tags to iOS App Store descriptions - In a slight tweak to the App Store, Apple recently began highlighting apps’ recommended age ratings by adding a small informational box located directly below a title’s developer credits, possibly in response to growing concern from parents over in-app content.

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Apple has acquired indoor-GPS company WifiSLAM for $20 Million. According to their website WifiSLAM was founded by  former Google coding intern Joseph Huang and works in the following way:

“WifiSLAM allows your smartphone to pinpoint its location in real-time to 2.5m accuracy using only ambient WiFi signals that are already present in buildings.”

While Apple has officially confirmed the purchase at the same time they have declined to comment any further on the matter.

Some readers might remember that this isn’t the first venture into acquiring location based companies, int he past they have taken over several smaller first including among others Placebase, Poly9, and C3 Technologies.

What do you guys think, why did Apple acquire WifiSLAM, do you think they have any future plans, are they going to compete with Google who have recently started integrating indoor maps into their system?

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Source: The Wall Street Journal

According to Electronista the US Department of Defense has decided to order a little more than 650,000 iOS devices from Apple. Apparently they were first considering the new Blackberry 10, however they couldn’t wait for those and therefore decided to purchase Apple devices instead.

The report on  Electronista states that the final purchase will include :

• 120,000 iPads
• 100,000 iPad minis
• 200,000 iPod touches,
• 210,000 iPhones of different models.

Sources confirm that over half of the purchased devices “are headed to the battlefield, afloat, and to associated support commands. Most of the rest will stay [at the Pentagon].”

While budgets have been cut, the US government did spend nearly $80 billion on IT equipment in 2012.