Twitter can now remove tweets from users’ feeds in specific countries while keeping them visible elsewhere.

For the past three years, I’ve had the pleasure to meet with HP at Macworld to find out what new Apple-centric products the company has produced. This year afforded another opportunity for HP to showcase their products, and I’ve put together a booth tour video with many of the highlights. If you can’t make it to Macworld | iWorld 2012, I hope you’ll enjoy this visit with the fantastic HP team.

Among the products you’ll see in the video are the new HP LaserJet Pro 400 color M451 printer, an excellent device for small to medium businesses and home offices. There’s also the HP LaserJet Pro 300 color MFP (multi-function printer) M375, an “all-in-one” printer/scanner/ copier/fax, and the faster HP LaserJet Pro 400 color MFP M475 printer. All of these devices are iOS compatible, using AirPrint for fast wireless discovery and printing.

Have you ever tried to scan a three-dimensional object on a flatbed scanner? It doesn’t work. That’s why HP has introduced the TopShot LaserJet Pro M275, a surprisingly affordable color laser printer with a unique 3D scanner.

HP has brought their top Apple support personnel to this year’s event, and you’ll meet two of the printer geniuses who are at Macworld | iWorld 2012 to answer any questions dealing with using HP products with Mac OS X and iOS devices.

You’ll meet the man behind all of HP’s mobile apps, including the free HP PrinterControl app demonstrated in the video. Anyone who needs to print large format output from a Mac should get a lot out of the discussion of HP’s DesignJet printers and the vast variety of media they can print on.

Thanks again to the wonderful staff at HP, not only for taking time out of their work at the show today to talk with me, but for also sponsoring the highly successful TUAW Meetup at Jillian’s last night (January 26). Several lucky TUAW readers in attendance are receiving HP printers as part of the awesome giveaways. Me? I was just happy to meet and talk with hundreds of TUAW readers.

And now, on with our video:

HP at Macworld iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has emerged as the number one smartphone vendor worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2011, by a small margin, after losing ground to Samsung in the previous quarter, according to research firms Strategy Analytics and IHS iSuppli.

The executive chairman of Lytro—a small company doing big things in the world of photography—discusses the technology behind a light-field sensor, the possibility of licensing its camera tech to phone manufacturers, and the future of sensors.

On the second floor of Moscone West here at Macworld | iWorld 2012 is the Macworld Midway, a series of displays and events that are still Mac-related, but which veer a little out of the standard Apple community. One of those is this Art of South Park gallery, which features art from the very ribald (and hilarious) Comedy Central animated show. Not all of this art was created with Macs, but the show itself is developed and put together on Macs every week, and there’s a panel here at Macworld in which artists from the show are talking about how they use Apple’s technology.

If you’re not here in San Francisco, you can walk through the gallery, and check out all of the art on display, below.

Macworld | iWorld’s Art of South Park gallery originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Superfly Presents the Creators panel at Macworld | iWorld brought together musicians, TV and film directors, and media managers for a wide-ranging discussion on the use of Apple products in creating media and running a media business.

Separate IHS iSuppli and Strategy Analytics studies Friday have backed Apple’s rapid return to the top of the smartphone space in the fall. Determining that Samsung had shipped 36 million smartphones, slightly higher than Samsung’s preliminary estimates, IHS iSuppli put Apple’s 37 million iPhones just on top. Although Samsung nearly quadrupled the amount of smartphones it shipped and moved more year-long, Apple’s higher starting point meant it could just double its yearly shipments to stay competitive….

While there are still quite a few good comic book reader apps on the App Store, there’s really only one choice for buying digital comics directly from the publishers: Comixology’s aptly title Comics app. Comixology launched early on iOS devices, beginning with a web interface and then the very popular iPhone app. Since the introduction of the iPad the company’s really started to shine, bringing in huge partnerships with publishers like DC, Marvel, and Image Comics. Comixology provides both a very slick and usable reading interface and a very well-designed store that delivers digital comics through in-app purchases.

Comixology’s VP of Marketing, PR, and Business Development Chip Mosher kindly met up with us on the floor of Macworld | iWorld this week, and he agrees that the App Store has brought a lot of success for Comixology, both the app and the company itself (which also runs a few other standalone apps). Even so, Mosher says “really good” still isn’t good enough. While Comixology does have most of the major comic titles covered, Dark Horse Comics still delivers its titles through its own store, and Archie Comics also come through a dedicated app run by competitor iVerse Media. There are still some whales out there that Comixology is hunting in terms of delivering digital comics on the iPad.

Mosher balked at revealing any major features of the app in the works, but he does say that Comixology is aiming for a “buy once, read anywhere” plan with its digital downloads. Even before iCloud took off, Comixology offered its own syncing service, so any titles purchased on the iPhone would show up automatically on the iPad and vice versa. Mosher says the plan is to do that with everything, so purchases also cross over to Android devices, plus any readers on desktop computers or the web. He agrees that as long as the company can provide readers with their purchased comics when and wherever they need them, customers will be happy to jump in and buy them under the Comixology banner.

Mosher shrugs at the mention of Apple bringing comic books to iBooks in a more official way. Certainly, Apple has shown some interest in bringing periodicals to iBooks, and a few comic authors are publishing their own books using iBooks Author. But Mosher believes Comixology will just have to continue to provide content users want in an app they’re happy to use and worry about whatever Apple decides to do when that happens.

Finally, we chatted about Comixology’s “GuidedView” technology, which provides a panel-by-panel look at each comic’s art. Mosher says that when the tech was first introduced, “I don’t think anyone at Comixology thought people would use it,” but in fact “a ton of people have.” Mosher says it’s probably most valuable on the iPhone’s smaller screen, but Comixology still uses the tech to provide the feature on all of its new comics, so clearly the company is committing to support it.

Comixology has had a lot of success on the iPad especially, to the point where anyone looking for comics on Apple’s tablet will likely end up in this app eventually. We’ll keep an eye on the app and the company going forward, and see what they can do next to keep their growing hold on the iPad’s comics market.

Comixology reigns over comics on the iPad originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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An interesting piece of software I’ve run across at Macworld | iWorld 2012 is Audible Magic, automated-content recognition software that relies on digital fingerprinting. The Audible Magic technology will identify a TV series based off the audio as it’s being broadcast. Audible Magic’s customers include yap.tv and Miso, which will have the Audible Magic’s recognition integrated into their apps.

Check out the video as Audible Magic’s Jay Friedman gives a demonstration of the software and explains how it helps viewers.

Audible Magic can recognize anything you watch on TV originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung has suffered its second patent loss against Apple in as many weeks. The company has said that a German court has ruled that its second of three patent claims related to 3G/UMTS has been rejected. The latest blow in its bitter ongoing legal battle with Apple comes after the same court ruled that the first of the three patents that it is asserting against Apple was also rejected. The Mannheim court has reserved its decision on the third of Samsungís 3G claims until March 2….

Google has made a change in its Google Music service for US-based Android users that allows them to not just stream but actually download their songs onto their Android devices or computers, according to a company blog post. The service, which launched just days after Apple launched its iTunes Match, also strengthened its ties to Google’s social service Google+ by allowing users to share YouTube music videos of songs with their circles and friends on Google+ (if available)….

Although Garmin would seem to fit in better at CES rather than the Macworld iWorld expo, the navigation company brought its latest iOS apps to San Francisco this week to show off the latest features. MacNN played around with the updated version of StreetPilot onDemand, which now enables users to take advantage of social networking features….

The yellow sticky note of doom has appeared, and the Apple Store is currently down. What sort of updates will this bring? Since it’s early Friday on the East Coast, most likely maintenance. But with Macworld, it could be anything. We’ll let you know of any changes once it’s back up!

Update: The store has come back up. No new items have been added, but Apple has a new campaign on the store focused on Valentine’s Day. Apple has positioned it as a gift guide, and the iPad 2 with a (PRODUCT) RED Smart Cover is prominently displayed.

Apple Store is down (Update: Back up with Valentine’s Day gift guide) originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The yellow sticky note of doom has appeared, and the Apple Store is currently down. What sort of updates will this bring? Since it’s early Friday on the East Coast, most likely maintenance. But with Macworld, it could be anything. We’ll let you know of any changes once it’s back up!

Apple Store is down originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New info trickling out from a CrackBerry interview with new RIM CEO Thorsten Heins may assuage some early fears that he was locked into his predecessors' management style. The new executive made a point not just to use Android, iOS, and other platforms himself but a "whole team" that both looks at the competition and sees what doesn't work. Even his children are involved, he said….

Taking note of a recent Forrester Research report that enterprises will spend 45 percent more on Macs and 68 percent more on iPads in the corporate sector compared to 2011, GroupLogic has updated its flagship ExtremeZ-IP program that allows for easy integration of Macs into existing Windows-based server environments. The new version adds full support for Lion and the Apple Filing Protocol (AFP), including Time Machine and OS X extended attributes….

A seemingly minor decision for Windows 8 in the post-developer preview versions has shown an about-face by Microsoft in its approach to design. During new demos on Thursday to TechRadar, Windows 8 communications lead Chris Flores explained that users wouldn’t be allowed to change the background of the main Metro screen to their own photo. Scaling was an issue, but Microsoft had also decided that the home screen tiles would cover it up too much, defeating the point of a custom image….

Id Software's non-franchise game for iOS devices, Rage HD, has now been updated to version 2.0. The game, which puts players in the middle of a "reality TV" show called Mutant Bash, is a first-person rail shooter that now includes in-app purchasing of additional episodes, higher-resolution player and weapon graphics, better video out support for VGA, component cables and HDMI under iOS 5, and various performance enhancements for controlling the game….