When snapping digital photos with our cameras and phones, it’s easy to forget what’s actually happening inside to get the light from your subject into the camera, and then up on its way to Instagram. So, if you ever wondered how a CCD sensor actually works, and how light is turned into electricity and shifted off the sensor, watch this great video by Engineer Guy Bill Hammack.

You probably know that light sensitive pixels create a charge when hit by light. The trick is getting the charge off the sensor chip and into the camera’s computer. Instead of using wires, a CCD works more like a game of Connect 4 aka Four In A Line.

Imagine your Connect Four game is full of counters. If you could carefully open the bottom and only let the first row drop out, the other rows would all drop down by one line, intact. This is exactly how the CCD does it, only instead of plastic disks it shifts electrical charges.

And that’s it — ingenious and simple, just like most clever solutions. I sure learned something today. Thanks, Engineer Guy!

Source: YouTube
Via: PetaPixel

If you’ve ever clicked on the Ping menu next to a song you have selected in iTunes, you’ll have noticed the option to Like or Post via Ping. You may have also noticed the option to show the song, the artist, or the genre of the currently selected song in the iTunes Music Store. But what if you want to find all the songs by that artist in your own iTunes library? Today’s tip shows you how, with a little bit of Terminal magic.

Be sure to quit iTunes first, then launch Terminal from the Utilities folder, which is located inside the Applications folder. Once launched, type or paste in the following:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks -bool YES

Now when you click on the Ping button, you’ll see “Show in iTunes Library,” instead of store, and iTunes will switch to a column view to list your choice, whether you chose to see all songs from the artist, the album, or the genre of the current song.

If you want to put it all back the way it was, then simply replace YES with NO, above, and all will be well (be sure to quit iTunes before you issue any Terminal commands like this).

Got an OS X tip? Need help troubleshooting OS X? (sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address) or leave a comment below.

Source: The Mac Observer

The next-generation iPhone could be the first to support China Mobile's 3G network.

China Mobile, the world’s largest carrier with over 655 million subscribers, is in talks with Apple to bring the iPhone to its homegrown 3G (TD-SCDMA) network. The carrier’s chairman, Xi Guohua, confirmed the discussions during a shareholders meeting earlier this week.

“We’ve been actively talking to Apple on how we can cooperate,” Xi said. “I can’t give you too many details, but I’d like to repeat that both sides do hope to boost our cooperation.”

One of reasons why the iPhone hasn’t made it to China Mobile during its first five years is that the device does not support China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA network. However, analysts have claimed that the next-generation iPhone will feature a new wireless chip from Qualcomm that will remove that barrier.

Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard that the iPhone will come to China Mobile. Xi’s predecessor, Wang Jianzhou, previously revealed that Apple had “promised” to provide the carrier with an LTE-capable iPhone when it had one:

We have not yet got [an] agreement [though] Apple promised to provide, when they develop the iPhone for LTE, that it will include TD-LTE. We are discussing the details.

The next-generation device is expected to be the first to boast an LTE chip after Apple introduced the 4G technology to its third-generation iPad back in March, and rumors claim that the device will make its debut this October — around 12 months after the iPhone 4S got its unveiling.

Despite incompatibility with China Mobile’s 3G network, 15 million users continue to use the iPhone on the carrier’s 2G network.

Source: Reuters

Via: The Next Web

Live your dream of becoming an astronaut from the comfort of your favorite armchair.

Becoming an astronaut is every boy’s dream. Who doesn’t want to walk on the moon? Unfortunately that dream fades away for the vast majority of us when we grow up and realize NASA doesn’t employ overweight college dropouts. That’s when we take up blogging.

But thanks to an upcoming iOS app, we can all pop on a white suit and moon boots and dance with the satellites.

Independent iOS developer Jose Hernandez is developing a new app called Astronaut Simulator, which gives everyone with an iOS device the chance to a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) — the same booster-controlled suite used on NASA shuttle missions — in space.

This isn’t like traditional space-based titles that have you battling aliens with lasers of catapulting unhappy birds at thieving swines. Instead, Astronaut Simulator calls upon you to complete 20 missions with objectives that involve reaching satellites and performing repairs before your air supply runs out.

Hernandez says the project is still around three weeks away from completion, which means we’ll probably see Astronaut Simulator in the App Store in late June or early July following approval from Apple. But in the meantime, you can enjoy these gorgeous screenshots.

Source: PocketGamer

It may not look exactly like this, but you can expect Apple's next iPhone to ship with a larger display.

With so many contrasting rumors in recent weeks, it has been hard to predict whether or not Apple will increase the size of the display for its sixth-generation iPhone. But according to sources for The Wall Street Journal, the Cupertino company is preparing to break away from its existing 3.5-inch panels in favor of a display measuring “at least 4 inches diagonally.”

Existing iPhone displays boast a significantly greater resolution that those which debuted in the first-generation iPhone back in 2007, but five years on, they’re still exactly the same size. Users were hoping Apple would introduce a bigger display with the fifth-generation iPhone, but it chose to use the same design that featured on the iPhone 4.

It’s going to be a different story for the next iPhone — often dubbed the “iPhone 5″ — however, with “people familiar with the situation” claiming that Apple has already ordered screens of “at least 4 inches” from its Asian suppliers.

Production is set to begin next month for the screens, which measure at least 4 inches diagonally compared with 3.5 inches on the iPhone 4S, the latest phone from Apple, the people said.

Apple’s decision to increase the iPhone’s screen size is believed to be due to increasing competition from larger devices from the likes of Samsung and HTC. With Android handsets ranging in size all the way up to 5.3-inches, iPhone users have been calling for a little more from Apple’s Retina display.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Zooey loves her iPhone, and men love Zooey.

Try to not fall out of your chair or trip face-first into the pavement, because we have some breaking news for you: men love Zooey Deschanel. We’re not quite sure why, but it probably has something to do with her drop-dead gorgeousness and delightful quirkiness. Her hair is also very nice.

Apple knows that Zooey Deschanel is wonderful too, and you can see Zooey on TV talking to Siri in the newest ad for the iPhone 4S. Her spot with Apple runs alongside a similar iPhone ad starring the one and only Samuel L. Jackson.

According to new research, Apple’s latest ads are being received very well. Specifically, men between the age of 18-34 seem to really be showing interest in the Zooey ad. We wonder why.

The YouGov BrandIndex’s Buzz score is based off asking people the following question: “If you’ve heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?” Respondents are asked about all kinds of brands, including Apple competitors like BlackBerry, HTC, Motorola, Nokia and Samsung.

According to YouGov:

Apple has proven that celebrities go well with Siri.

Apple’s new iPhone ads featuring Zooey Deschanel and Samuel L. Jackson coincide with an increase in consumer perception for the brand among 18-34 year olds in the US. The recent improvement in consumer perception has pushed iPhone ahead of Android and distanced itself even more from the rest of the mobile device sector.

While both men and women were behind the perception lift, men registered the strongest push for the iPhone.

Android’s perception with the 18–34 demo dipped slightly when the iPhone campaign began running at the end of April.

For your viewing pleasure:

The unfortunate reality of trying to replace cable with video subscription services such as Netflix or Hulu is that, well… they kind of suck. Okay, so that’s my opinion and it’s completely possible that you’re happy with the Walmart bargain bin selection of movies Netflix has to offer, or being last to find out that The Island was just purgatory and the whole point of LOST was, well… pointless. There’s many reasons why I’ve been unable to cut cable out of my life, and if I’m going to be paying for it every month — I might as well get my money’s worth. That’s where the Slingbox SOLO comes in.

Sling Media and their Slingboxes have actually been around for quite some time, and in my opinion, remain the best solution for watching TV while on-the-go. If you haven’t heard of a Slingbox, it’s a TV streaming media device (although it can stream much more than TV) that allows you to watch and control your cable or satellite service via an internet or mobile connection.

I’ll be showing you a Slingbox SOLO which is the cheaper of the two Slingboxes offered by Sling Media and costs anywhere between $149 to $200 — depending on where you purchase it. While the Slingbox SOLO only offers a Standard Definition viewing experience, it gets the job done, and does it quite well. Anyone interested in the HD Pro model can expect to pay upwards of $300, but if you can swing the cash, it definitely has its advantages over the SOLO.

The Slingbox SOLO comes with:

• AC adapter (100-240V, 50-60Hz)
• Ethernet cable
• Quick Start Guide
• Composite A/V cable
• Remote control IR cable

Setting up the Slingbox is fairly easy and requires that you:

1. Connect your TV or video source to the Slingbox.
2. Attach the remote control IR cable so you can control your TV from your computer or mobile device.
3. Connect the Slingbox to your network router.
4. Connect the Slingbox to a power outlet.
5. Configure your Slingbox at www.slingbox.com/getstarted. If you wish to watch on a smartphone, install the SlingPlayer software on your compatible smartphone. To watch on a connected device such as a TV, you need a Boxee Box.

Once you have everything set up, you can begin watching your TV at www.slingbox.com or by using the SlingPlayer app for your mobile device. The SlingPlayer app costs $29.99 in both the Google Play and App Store. It may very well be the most expensive app you’ll purchase, but it’s worth it to have your full cable channel lineup available to you wherever you go.

The viewing experience online via a computer is the most optimal of the two and gives you a larger screen view than with a mobile device. I experienced no lag and a quality picture over a broadband connection via Comcast. Viewing on my mobile device was great due to mobility and the picture quality was good enough to enjoy what I was watching. The SlingPlayer app takes a little getting used to and using the on screen controls can cause a bit of a lag. Other than that, streaming was smooth over WiFi and 4G, not so much over 3G.

If you simply can’t get away from cable, the Slingbox SOLO and SlingPlayer app will allow you to take all of your on-demand and cable content along with you when you can’t be at home. You’ll never miss a game or finale as long as you have an internet or mobile connection, and sometimes you just need to experience a media moment as it’s happening — not days, weeks, or even months later.

Product: Slingbox SOLO, SlingPlayer App (Android, iOS)

Price: $149 to $200 (Slingbox SOLO), $29.99 (SlingPlayer App)

Pros: The Slingbox looks sleek and compliments any home entertainment center, it’s fairly easy to set up and gives you access to all of the TV content you already subscribe to. Viewing quality is more than sufficient over WiFi and having your cable box in the palm of your hands is simply priceless.

Cons: The Slingbox and SlingPlayer are a bit pricier than I would like. You’ll also have to purchase a separate app for both your phone and tablet which is absolutely ridiculous at $30 a pop. Customer service is non-existent unless you pay extra, and viewing quality over 3G or limited areas can be a frustrating experience.

Verdict: If you already have a cable subscription, this is a kick-ass combo that will give you what others crave: live television in the palm of your hand. Even if your goal is to cut cable out of your life, the Slingbox can make for a great relay to a security camera or other video monitoring device. All-in-all, an investment I’m more than pleased with.

For a hands on look at the Slingbox SOLO and SlingPlayer app for Android, check out the semi-lengthy video below. Cheers!

These phones may not be sold in the U.S. if they don't make it past Customs.

In December of 2011 the International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled in favor of Apple for placing a ban on the U.S. import of multiple HTC smartphones. It was the first major exclusion ban of its kind, and it all hinged on one Apple patent.

The HTC import ban went into effect on April 19, 2012, and the delay was meant to give HTC time to re-engineer around the infringing issues. HTC said it was going to have everything cleared and ready to go in time, but U.S. Customs has now halted the One X and Evo 4G LTE from crossing the border.

HTC’s statement on the news:

The US availability of the HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE has been delayed due to a standard U.S. Customs review of shipments that is required after an ITC exclusion order. We believe we are in compliance with the ruling and HTC is working closely with Customs to secure approval. The HTC One X and HTC Evo 4G LTE have been received enthusiastically by customers and we appreciate their patience as we work to get these products into their hands as soon as possible.

According to The Verge, Apple’s patent that caused this whole stir “covers automatically converting things like phone numbers and email addresses into actionable links that open a menu of options.” Sounds pretty vague.

The Verge gives some more details:

Customs and Border Protection is in charge of executing the order, and it’s allowed to handle things pretty much any way it wants; there are really no formal rules governing how exclusion orders are interpreted or enforced. What’s more, the final enforcement instructions delivered by Customs to its officers are totally classified — they’re even excluded from Freedom of Information Act requests. At this point HTC is basically in limbo while it waits for Customs to issue a decision.

Sounds like a sticky situation. Apple doesn’t play around with its patents.

Source: The Verge

Boehner giving Cook the stanky eye

Apple CEO Tim Cook met with U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner at the U.S. Capitol today. The details of the meeting remain unknown, but Cook was likely sweet talking Boehner to pass the the tax holiday Apple wants so it can bring back billions in offshore cash at a low tax rate.

$74 billion of Apple’s $110 billion in cash assets are held offshore to avoid higher U.S. corporate tax rates, and many businesses based in the states operate the same way. Apple pioneered a technique called “Double Irish With a Dutch Sandwich” in which it routes its profits through Irish subsidiaries and the Netherlands and then to the Caribbean to sidestep income taxes. (The New York Times recently ran a piece on Apple’s tax evasion that garnered some criticism, if you want to learn more.)

So, what topics do you think Cook and Boehner were talking about today in DC?

Source: John Boehner

Via: MacRumors

A certain indie film starring Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs has been the recipient of a ton of press lately, but that little film is being put together by an ragtag crew with no experience, based off a screenplay from an unknown writer. That film is probably going to suck, but the movie being put together by Sony Pictures should get everyone excited because they just hired one of the best screenwriters in Hollywood – Aaron Sorkin.

Sony Pictures has licensed the rights to adapt Walter Isaacson’s bestselling biography of Steve Jobs for the big screen and it looks like they’re ready to throw some serious money into the project, first off by hiring the Oscar winning writer Aaron Sorkin who scribed The Social Network, Moneyball, The West Wing, A Few Good Men, and The American President.

Details of the project are scant, but Sony Pictures put out a press release this afternoon to announce the hiring of Sorkin to the project. Commenting on the picture, Amy Pascal, Co-Chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment claimed,

“Steve Jobs’ story is unique: he was one of the most revolutionary and influential men not just of our time but of all time. There is no writer working in Hollywood today who is more capable of capturing such an extraordinary life for the screen than Aaron Sorkin; in his hands, we’re confident that the film will be everything that Jobs himself was: captivating, entertaining, and polarizing.”

Back in October of 2011 Sorkin admitted he was really considering the job but details haven’t been made firm until now. The full press release from Sony Pictures can be read here.

Via: Variety

Announced back in December, Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode II is finally ready for prime time. The next iteration in the Sonic series includes our favorite blue mammal along with his furry friend Tails. The game launched on the PlayStation Network and Steam today but will hit the Google Play Store tomorrow and the App Store on Thursday.

Android support for STH 4 Episode II seems to be a bit of a mystery as it was reported back in December to feature support for mobile devices powered by the NVIDIA Tegra mobile processor, however, in today’s Sega blogpost, they only state support for Tegra 3 devices. Hopefully this isn’t the case as there aren’t that many Tegra 3 devices available — I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.

Episode II was hugely influenced by user feedback and will reward players who have purchased Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode I and II (on the same platform) with the exclusive chance to experience Episode Metal, a special unlockable story that features one of Sonic’s greatest foes.

You can check out the trailer below for a sneak peek at what you can expect from the next great chapter in the Sonic story. Be sure to keep an eye on your respective app store just in case Sega lets the game slip out a bit early — you never know. SAYYYYY——GAAAA!

Source: Sega Blog Via: Android Police

We’ve figured out how to get the best prices on every piece of Apple gear you buy, and on the latest CultCast, we’ll tell you how, too.

Plus: our source within Apple has seen their secret new HDTV – we tell he told us.

And don’t miss our our reactions to what this insane Apple fan installed on his person.

Subscribe to the CultCast now on iTunes, and read on for our show notes!

Our sponsor this week are the fine folks at Audible – get your free audio book at Audiblepodcast.com/CultCast.

Our Stories This Week

- Here’s how to get an 16GB iPad 2 direct from Apple for $304 (no link, you’ll have to listen!)

- This Guy Got 4 Magnets Implanted In His Wrist To Hold His iPod Nano [Video]

- Our Source Has Seen The Apple HDTV, Here’s What It Looks Like

- Apple Said To Be ‘Investigating’ Multi-User Support For iPad

- AT&T CEO: Family Data Sharing Plans Coming Soon

- Many Apps Enter, But Only One Can Reign Supreme – Here Are Our Favorite Apps Of The Week (no link you’ll have to listen!)

In two days, hundreds of thousands of Verizon customers will be able to experience the blazing speeds of 4G LTE thanks to another major rollout. Verizon continues to leave its competitors in the dust and come May 17, Verizon will have blanketed 258 markets with its 4G LTE network. This week’s expansion lists a few areas we’ve already told you about, and includes 28 new markets as well as 11 expansion markets. If you live in any of the following areas, get ready for a nice speed boost:

New Markets:

• Thibodaux and Lake Charles, La.
• Hyannis/Mid-Cape, Mass
• Benton Harbor/St. Joseph, Mich
• Biloxi/Gulfport/Pascagoula and Oxford, Miss
• Atlantic City/Toms River, N.J.
• Dickinson and Williston, N.D.
• Ashtabula, Bucyrus and Defiance, Ohio
• Eugene/Springfield, Ore.
• Lancaster, New Castle, Northern Cambria County, Oil City/Franklin, Somerset and York, Pa.
• Myrtle Beach, S.C.
• Mitchell, S.D.
• Paris, Texas
• Burlington/Northern, Vt.
• Fredericksburg, Harrisonburg, Martinsville and Staunton/Waynesboro, Va.
• Sheridan, Wyo.

Expansions:

• Denver, Colo
• Dover, Del.
• Fort Myers and Lakeland, Fla.
• Hagerstown, Md.
• Canton, Lima, Mansfield, Toledo and Youngstown/Warren, Ohio
• Erie, Pa.

There’s been some reports of some of these areas already being live so if you live in one of the above new markets and are seeing 4G LTE, sound off in the comments to let others know. Keep up the good work Verizon, I like to see my money at work.

Source: Verizon Wireless

Notify offers self-servicing options for users and mobile use details for IT.

May is Mobile Management Month at Cult of Mac, where we will be profiling a different mobile management company every weekday. You can find all previous entries here and read our Mobile Management manifesto here.

Notify has been providing a range of enterprise mobile solutions for quite some time. In addition to its NotifyMDM mobile management solution, the company produces a push messaging solution known as NotifyLink as well as NotifySync, an Exchange ActiveSync solution for BlackBerry devices. NotifyMDM supports the core mobile management needs with a focus on user self-servicing options and on providing comprehensive device use information.

Company:  Notify Technology
Product(s):  NotifyMDM
Type of Solutions(s):  device and app management

Platforms supported beyond iOS:  Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows Phone

Licensing Model: Recurring
Includes/Offers Maintenance Updates?: Included
Technical Support Options:  14/5 and 24/7 options

Deployment Options: cloud service, on-premise appliance

Failover and Load Balancing Options:  Supports failover and load balancing

Scalability: supports multiple locations and location-specific administration

Directory System Integration:  Microsoft Active Directory, Apple Open Directory, LDAP

Administrative Tool Options:  web/cloud

Data Export Capabilities:  Device hardware, installed configuration profiles, usage and  location, installed apps, device liability/ownership, connection schedule, battery life, signal strength.

Expense Management Features:  track carrier, alert on roaming, track SMS and phone usage data

Device Enrollment Mechanism(s):  website, email, SMS, iOS app
Support for secure/authenticated enrollment:  Yes
Security Certificate Features:  Certificates for SCEP enrollment, Exchange, Wi-Fi, VPN

Remote/On Demand Administrative  Actions: remote lock, remote wipe, selective wipe of corporate data

App Management Options:  enterprise app store with custom and public apps, Apple Volume Purchase Plan integration

WatchESPN running on an iPad

An official ESPN app could eventually make its way to the Apple TV set-top box, according to a new report today. Bloomberg says that Disney, parent company of ESPN, is open to offering Apple digital access to its sports network for Apple TV users. While a deal is by no means confirmed, it appears that the companies could be in talks to add an ESPN Apple TV app in the future.

ESPN subscribers with AppleTV would gain access to the network’s Internet service on their sets. The sports network, which today announced programming for the TV season starting in September, said a deal isn’t imminent.

“We’re a platform-agnostic content company,” Bratches, the network’s executive vice president of affiliate and advertising sales, said today in an interview. “To the extent that in the future there’s an opportunity with Apple to authenticate through the pay-TV food chain as we’re doing with Microsoft, that’s something that we will participate in.”

The WatchESPN app is currently available in the iOS App Store for Bright House Networks, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon FiOS TV subscribers. You can actually stream the app’s video feed to an Apple TV via AirPlay already. (Isn’t that amazing, Time Warner CEO?) A dedicated ESPN Apple TV app would assumedly be included in a future software update.

Update: Bloomberg has backtracked with a comment issued by ESPN.

No deal is imminent with Apple, said Amy Phillips, a spokeswoman for Bristol, Connecticut-based ESPN.

“We’re not having conversations with Apple about authenticating WatchESPN,” Phillips said.

Source: Bloomberg

Instagram IRL

The Socialmatic Instagram camera concept caused quite the buzz after we posted it last week. After making the rounds on all kinds of blogs and design sites, the concept’s creator, Antonio De Rosa of ADR Studios, decided there was enough interest to try and turn the dream into reality.

De Rosa has launched a campaign on Indiegogo to raise funds for turning the Socialmatic into a real-life camera. The concept is based entirely around Instagram and the idea of physicalizing the way we share on social networks. Will the camera actually see the light of day? That’s up to you.

The Socialmatic comes with 16GB of storage, a 4:3 touchscreen, WiFi, and Bluetooth. There are two lens; one for taking pictures and the other for scanning QR codes. The QR code aspect comes into play after the camera prints out a Polaroid-like photo. Your Instagram account is shown in QR form on the real-life photo’s border, and other Socialmatics can scan the code to follow that user on Instagram. It’s pretty quirky, but De Rosa thinks it could catch on.

In my original Socialmatic post, I remember asking “How long before we see a Kickstarter project that attempts to do something like this?” It turns out that we didn’t have to wait long at all.

De Rosa has launched a campaign on Indiegogo to raise $50,000 for the Socialmatic. If he reaches his goal the concept will be turned into a physical camera for avid Instagramers. De Rosa wants to keep the product cost under $300. The campaign runs until Sunday, June 1st. You can contribute on Indiegogo to help get the ball rolling. If it gets funded, De Rosa is promising a “massive discount” for whoever donates. If the campaign doesn’t reach its goal, everyone who donated will be fully refunded.

Would you actually buy a real-life Instagram camera?

Apple will have no problem find a market for an Apple HDTV

While there’s been a lot of speculation about Apple’s plans to enter the HDTV market, most of the discussion – including information from our source who has seen the device – has focused on the device itself. The form factor, pricing, manufacturing options, interface, input and remote control mechanisms, which iOS and OS X technologies could be leveraged in a TV – all these are key elements to the story of an iTV or Apple HDTV or whatever the device might be called.

These areas of speculation, however, don’t ask the most critical question: Will people buy an Apple HDTV?

According to tech research firm Strategy Analytics, the answer is yes – and it’s a pretty emphatic yes for iPhone owners.

Strategy Analytics explored the market viability of an Apple iTV in a recent survey of 6,000 consumers in the U.S. and Europe.

The headline fact that the firm included in reporting the survey’s results is that nearly half of all iPhone users surveyed said that they were likely to buy an Apple television and, perhaps more surprisingly, would buy one within a year of its release.

That’s a pretty sizable customer base. It may be small compared to the global HDTV market, but it certainly it’s not insignificant. In fact, it’s a much bigger market than one could’ve predicted when Apple introduced the iPod or the iPhone.

One of the big concerns about an Apple television is cost. Apple has fairly high margins on most of its hardware and companies in the HDTV business typically have razor thin margins.

In exploring that dichotomy, Strategy Analytics discovered that 35% of U.S consumers said that they would be willing to pay $1,000 or more for an Apple HDTV. Interest began to drop off sharply, however, as the price climbed beyond that. Only 14% said that they’d be willing to pay any more than $1,600.

According to Kantideep Thota, one of the company’s analysts, Apple could win over a significant number of customers in short order.

Samsung, Sony, LG and other major TV manufacturers are most threatened by the prospect of an Apple iTV launch. More than one quarter of non-Apple TV owners could potentially migrate to an Apple-branded TV in a fairly short period of time.

Source: Strategy Analytics

For a very brief moment in time, the Nokia 900 reigned supreme in the eyes of Siri. When asked what the best smartphone ever is, Siri replied back that the Nokia 900 4G was the best. Apple fixed that problem pretty quickly and made sure that Siri now replies that the iPhone 4S is lord of all smartphones. Now Nokia is pissed and says that Apple is conspiring against the truth, and if Siri’s opinions on smartphones can’t be trusted, what can? It’ll be anarchy.

“Apple positions Siri as the intelligent system that’s there to help, but clearly if they don’t like the answer, they override the software,” said Nokia spokeswoman Tracy Postill.

Nokia, when you’re king of the castle you get to make your own rules, especially when providing answers that are completely subjective. If Apple wants Siri to say that penguins are ostensibly cuter than pandas, or that cupcakes are better than brownies, it’s kind of their call.

There is a lot of truth to what Nokia is saying though. Clearly, Apple tweaked Siri so that it no longer uses WolframAlpha to answer the question, “What is the best smartphone ever?” Now Siri just provides a few preset responses like “You’re kidding, right?” “Wait…are there other phones?” or “The one that’s in your hand.”

WolframAlpha was a bad place to try to find an answer to that question to begin with, because it wasn’t designed to excel at those queries and just looks at rankings in Best Buy’s customer reviews.  Maybe in the future Apple will use sites like TheWirecutter, or Gdgt to gather “best of” data, but Nokia will probably cry foul then too because both of those sites have the iPhone 4S ranked as the top smartphone too.

Source: SMH

Via: iDB

We all know that Pixar, the revolutionary computer animation house Steve Jobs helped build in his wilderness years, makes the Toy Story films at least in part on Macs, alongside other Unix-based machines.

Back when Toy Story 2 was being made in the late 90s, though, the Unix-based nature of the machines Pixar uses for their animation almost led to the complete destruction of the film when an employee accidentally used the “rm *” command on the machine the film was being stored on. In seconds, all of Toy Story 2 was lost: a year’s work of other thirty people.

Not to worry though. A Mac-loving mom she had at home saved the day, and made sure that Toy Story 2 reached theaters on time to delight a generation of kids and adults alike.

Here’s Pixar’s Oren Jacobs and Galyn Susman recounting how Toy Story 2 was saved from being lost forever:

The machine raced from home was apparently an SGI Workstation — thanks for that piece of info, Matt! — but the owner of that workstation was Galyn Susman, a Mac-loving Mom who came to Pixar after animating award winning films not only using a Mac, but featuring a pencil tool escaping from the Macintosh interface, then attempting to get back onto the screen.

Awesome, huh? Mac users are always prepared.

Update: This post originally said the machine in question was a Mac. Even though Susman herself is a Mac nut, this was in error, and the machine was actually an SGI Workstation. Thanks to Matt Panzarino on Twitter for the timely correction.

Source: YouTube
Via: Boing Boing
Thanks: Matt P.

I have this friend who loves to send me photos. Pictures of his kid, his town, stuff he finds amusing in stores, and the like (bottles of wine). Problem is, they all come in sideways. This means that the photos are smaller than my iPhone screen as well as tilted. If I tilt my iPhone to the landscape view, the photos fill the screen, but are still on their side. It’s been frustrating. Imagine my joy when I found today’s tip on rotating images right on my iPhone.

The photos I needed to rotate were sent to me as MMS messages, so I saved them from there first. To do that, tap on the photo in the Messages app, then hit the little share button in the lower left. You’ll have the option to Save Image from there.

Then, open the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad. Find the photo you need to rotate and tap on the Edit button in the upper right corner of your screen. A little editing bar will show up at the bottom of the photo, with a rotate, enhance, red-eye and crop button at your disposal.

Tap the rotate button, which is the one farthest to the left. It will rotate your photo 90˚ counterclockwise for some reason, so you may need to tap it up to three times to orient the photo the way you want. Once it’s in the correct orientation, tap the yellow Save button at the top right. Your iOS device will process this, and the photo will now and forever be rotated in the Camera Roll. Hooray!

Now we can see all those silly photos we get sent in the way they were meant to be seen.

Source: OS X Daily

Got an iOS tip of your own? Need help troubleshooting your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad ? (sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address) or leave a comment below.

Available in different sounding flavors, the Vox amPlug (about $40) is a teensy bit of amp that plugs right into your guitar. Add to that your favorite headphones, and you’re ready to jam-out from wherever you sit.

The Good:

The amPlug is tiny and easier to use than a regular pedal or amp. It plugs into your guitar’s 1/4-inch jack, and then your headphones plug into its side. Definitely cleaner than having to use a guitar cord, and much more convenient for those of us who don’t want to leave our couches (my amp is downstairs!).

The amPlug is also super simple to operate, with just three wheels to tweak: gain, volume, and tone.

And on its top, an aux jack. That’ll allow you connect your iPhone to the amPlug, boot up iTunes, then shred to your favorite tracks in real-time.

And this surprised me: the amPlug sounds pretty good! My brit-rock inspired AC30 model had no problem pumping dirty London sound waves through my Apple earbuds. And it no doubt would have sounded even better with some decent headphones.

The Bad:

I have to raise a brow at how much value each amPlug offers. Sure, they look cool and sound good, but each model only serves up one distinct sound. For a bit more cash, you could get a guitar adapter that allows you to plug your guitar into your iPhone, and then you’d have a whole app store full of amps, pedals, and cabinets at your disposal.

I also found the build-quality of the amPlug to be, well, a bit flimsy. I guess that shouldn’t be too surprising considering the price point of these little dudes, but I’ve always been irked by things that don’t seem well-made.

Verdict:

The amPlug is fun, and it’s an easy way to give your axe a whole new sound. Could you get similar sounds from an app? Sure, if you have an iOS device and the right adapter, that’s a great way to go. But for beginners or people without an iDevice, amPlug offers a simple and inexpensive way to rock-out without ever leaving your couch.

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

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It's not just carelessness and ineptitude that makes this app so terrible.

Facebook’s iOS app is terrible.

That’s not a matter of opinion: it’s fact. It’s a festering pile of an app, with an average 2 star rating on the US iTunes App Srore.

The app’s slow. The notifications don’t work. The whole thing’s buggy. In every way imaginable, if you open Mobile Safari and type in facebook.com, you’ll have a better experience.

How could a company like Facebook that sees so much of its traffic come from mobile sources release such a terrible, unuseable app? And why hasn’t it gotten better?

As it turns out, some of it’s due to the inherent nature of Facebook, which is “move fast and break things.” Some of it’s due to bugs. And some of it’s because the only alternative is to wait for Apple to approve every change Facebook makes to its system.

Over at the Mobtest blog, they took the Facebook iOS app and did some packet sniffing to figure out just why the app had so many rudimentary problems displaying things like notifications and timelines when the Mobile Safari version runs just fine.

The post itself is a little technojargony, but what it comes down to is that the Facebook iOS app is an Objective C wrapper around Facebook’s raw HTML data, using iOS’s UIWebView component, which allows devs to display a web page in an app.

UIWebview is also slow. Very slow. It doesn’t have access to Mobile Safari’s blistering Nitro javascript engine, making it slower than loading up Facebook in the native browser. Worse, it’s absolutely junk at figuring out what it needs to download versus what it’s already got on hand, leading the app to redownload your entire timeline each and every time it loads itself, instead of just the chunks it needs.

Why would Facebook have its app work this way? Partly it’s because the web site is in HTML, and HTML can be displayed across Blackberries, Windows Phones, Android devices, etc.

Why doesn’t Facebook just use Objective C? A big part of it is that Objective C is actually rubbish at doing fluid layout thinks like having an image with text around it, or buttons with different kinds of text labels. What it mostly comes down to, though, is Facebook is a constantly evolving product across multiple platforms, including the desktop, and HTML is much more in-line with Facebook’s deployment process, as Mobtest explains:

FB developers are responsible for their own QA, and part of that is to push code out to a limited set of servers, see results and then push it out to more and do this each day if not more often. With Apple taking as least a week of review, rolling back a code change is a nightmare.

So there you go. These are all the technical reasons why you should probably delete that rubbish Facebook app and just use a bookmark in Safari instead.

Source: Mobtest
Via: Reddit

This is kind of neat. Back in early 2011, Apple patented an idea for a way for drivers to control the tunes playing on their iPhones or iPods without taking their hands off the wheel.

The solution? A tiny little ring that fits on your steeling wheel with an iPod clickwheel on top.

The ring — abut the size and shape of the plastic trinket you might find inside a box of Cracker Jacks — would connect via Bluetooth to your iPhone or iPod, which in turn would be hooked up to your car stereo. It even had a rotatable face plate.

You’d think Siri would kill the need for an accessory like this, since voice is clearly a better way to search for and play tracks than a remote control is, but even with Siri, you still need to take one hand off the wheel to trigger the voice control.

I think it’s doubtful we’ll ever see something like this as a real product, but it’s still a cute little patent when it comes to being a simple, elegant solution to a common problem.

Source: Patently Apple
Image: Patently Apple

Google’s latest Stable release of Chrome now includes the ability to sync tabs across multiple devices. As long as you are signed into Chrome, you’ll now have the ability to take your tabs with you when switching between work, home, mobile (with Chrome for Android beta), etc. Accessing them is quick and easy thanks to the new “Other devices” menu located on the New Tab page, and even the back and forward buttons will work, allowing you to pick up browsing right where you left off.

To access this new feature, you’ll have to update your Chrome browser to the new Chrome 19. You can download Chrome 19 by following this link or you can update your current version by clicking on the wrench icon in Chrome and clicking on “About Google Chrome.” Google has stated that while Chrome will be updated to the latest Stable version over the next few days, the tab sync feature will be rolled out more gradually over the coming weeks. So, if you don’t see the new feature right away, don’t worry, it should be coming within the next couple weeks.

I had no problems downloading the newest version of Chrome and the tab sync feature is present and working, so hopefully you’ll have the same luck. Below is a quick Google video showing how the new tab sync feature works, but I’ll be uploading a hands-on a little later for a better look at how to sync your tabs across multiple devices. Cheers!

Source: Chrome Blog

NotesTab Pro and begging "join our mailing list" window. Could have been worse; could have said "Please rate us five stars!"

Do we need any more notepad apps for OS X? Of course we do, what a foolish question. We always need more notepad apps. But if a newcomer to the notepad app scene (what, you didn’t know there was a notepad app scene? tut tut) wants to make any impact, it needs to be really, really good at what it does.

NotesTab Pro is one such newcomer, and although it has some appealing features, it doesn’t offer enough to make it stand out from its rivals.

The app comes in both free and paid-for ($3) varieties. I had a look at the latter. The first thing you notice is the iOSishness of the whole thing. It is by no means the first OS X app to adopt the iOS design language, nor will it be the last. That design language works in some cases and not in others – for a notepad app that lives in the Menu Bar, it feels appropriate.

The iOSification doesn’t end there, though. NotesTab looks very similar to Apple’s own Reminders app for iOS, only moreso. The paper background is more textured and crumpled, the notepad’s “exterior” is more skeuomorphic than Apple’s. NotesTab can adopt one of four different themes – leather, carbon, metal or wood. Do you know anyone with a wooden notepad? No, neither do I. But.

Is it actually any good for notes? It’s OK, but in my view, not good enough. There are a number of problems, most of them minor, but together they add up to frustration. And that doesn’t make for a very positive experience.

The app is very mouse- or trackpad-centric. There are some keyboard shortcuts, but they are frustratingly incomplete. So, you can call NotesTab to the front with a command, and create a new note with another. But to return to your list of notes, you’re forced back to clicking.

The themes give you some control over how things look, but you can’t remove the textured paper background. There are some problems with full screen mode – it removes the “new note” and “back to notes list” buttons, which means you’re stuck inside the note you’re editing until you go back to normal window mode. The sharing button only does email right now – no quick access to Twitter or Facebook.

And generally speaking, the app suffers from sluggish performance. It struggled to cope with my typing speed, pausing every so often while my fingers clattered ahead, then catching up a second or so later. It’s a little thing, but it bothered me. I like text apps to keep up with the text I’m putting into them.

A crucial missing feature is syncing. There’s no iCloud or Dropbox support yet, although the developers say both of these are coming.

There’s a helpful little notepad app here, struggling to find its way out. I’d suggest putting this on your apps-to-try list, and waiting a while for an update that tidies things up and adds some degree of syncing. When that happens, NotesTab Pro might be on to something.

Pro: Small, helpful and hidden in the Menu Bar means it’s always to hand

Con: Missing features, bugs, and performance problems make it hard to recommend just yet

This is going to happen. Bet on it.

The iTV. The Apple HDTV. SiriTV.

Whatever you want to call it, there’s a lot of talk out there about how Apple is going to revolutionize the living room experience by releasing their own proper television set.

There’s reason enough to be skeptical of these reports. From the industry’s notoriously low margins — Sony’s losing billions on their television business — to the fact that consumers simply don’t upgrade their TVs like they do their smartphones, does it even make sense that Apple would want to release their own television set?

Sure, Steve Jobs said he had “cracked” the TV problem before he died, but who’s to say that he wasn’t talking about Cupertino’s existing set-top box, the Apple TV, a $99 puck that anyone can afford and that slurps up streaming content from the web or the iPhones, iPads and (with Mountain Lion) Macs already in the home?

I’ll say it. The Apple TV is not enough, and Apple absolutely must release a revolutionary television set in the next two years.

Why? Because no matter how popular the Apple TV becomes, it will never be essential.

The Apple TV Is Not A Nexus

That’s not to say the Apple TV isn’t a great device. It is. If you have an Apple TV, you can stream media from Apple’s servers through iCloud, or through apps like Netflix and Hulu, or even beam video from your iPad or iPhone to your existing television set. Even better, it costs under $100. It’s a steal.

But while the Apple TV is great, it’s an accessory, a peripheral. It’s a hanger on, eking out bare sustenance by feeding off the living room’s unconquerable behemoth: the television set. And for Apple, that won’t do.

If you look at Apple’s core products — the Mac, the iPad, the iPhone and the iPod — what Apple primarily does is make the one essential device that a person needs to connect to whole spheres of media and information.

In other words, Apple makes nexuses. That’s why the current Apple TV isn’t enough. It’s not a nexus, because it’s not that one essential device. And that means other companies can cut Apple out of the equation.

Why Apple Needs To Make An HDTV

Why? Smart TVs by Samsung, Sony, LG and others already have much of the Apple TV’s base functionality baked into their latest models of HDTVs, right out of the box. Worse, the Apple TV doesn’t allow you to watch actual TV through it: it does nothing to tame the incredible variety of content streaming into your home through a user’s cable box. The Apple TV may be a great device for people already invested in Apple’s ecosystem, but it’s not locking anyone new in. And between Roku, the PS3, the Xbox 360 and all sorts of other boxes vying for the HDMI ports on your HDTV, the competition is fierce, and getting fiercer.

This is why the Apple TV is a “hobby.” It’s a launch pad, not a rocket ship, and like all launch pads, Apple knows the Apple TV will inevitably get left behind sooner or later.

For Apple to get serious, they need to do for the living room what they did with personal computing, mobile computing, mobile phones, and music. They need to make a device that changes everything. Nothing less than a TV will do, because while this might seem obvious, it’s worth stressing: a TV is the one thing that is absolutely essential to the television watching experience. It’s the nexus through which everything else in the living room must connect.

Building The Apple HDTV

Not that it will be easy. There are a lot of challenges ahead of Apple.

• Apple’s HDTV needs to be revolutionary and game changing, because the only way you’re going to get people to upgrade their TVs is if you show them something that makes the television experience both simpler and more empowering.

• More importantly, Apple makes the vast majority of its money through hardware sales, which means upgrade cycles. Apple needs to figure out a way to get consumers to want to regularly upgrade their TVs every couple of years.

• Apple needs to make partnerships and bring the cable companies who famously killed off the Google TV to heel. Apple needs to figure out a way to efficiently distribute devices as bulky as television sets.

• Finally, Apple needs to figure out how to keep prices low enough to be attractive while also improving the notoriously low profit margins of the television making business so that every set sold nets them a profit.

Those are some significant challenges, but looking them over, I’m struck by how similar the list is to the list of challenges Apple faced when releasing the first iPhone. Then, as now, mobile phones were a low margin business. People kept their phones for years and didn’t care about upgrading. The carriers dominated and controlled all the profit, and both users and phone makers were relatively powerless as a result.

Apple changed all of that with one phone. Now look where we are. Apple controls most of the profit of the smartphone industry, with the previously dominant competition fighting for the scraps. Customers chomp at the bit to upgrade their phones every two years (or even more often). Users are empowered, as are developers. Carriers have had their stranglehold on the mobile industry broken, so much so that the fortunes of a carrier can be made or broken simply by whether it can get the iPhone on its network.

The only way Apple can do the same thing in the living room is with a proper television set.

Why I Believe, And Why You Should Too

If you look at Apple in the late 80s and early 90s and compare it to the Apple that Steve Jobs rebuilt from the ground up starting in 1997, the biggest difference in philosophy is that Apple will no longer accept not being in control of its destiny. It’s written in Cupertino’s DNA: Apple must be in control of the experience, the tech, and the hardware, not its competitors.

This is the mission that drives everything Apple does. Cupertino must be in control. The way they gain control is by making themselves the one essential point of entry into every computing experience they decide to approach. The Mac. The iPod. The iPhone. The iPad. And soon, the Apple HDTV, because anything less means the competition is in control, and Apple’s destiny in the living room is at the whim of other companies.

This is why I believe in the Apple HDTV. I don’t know for sure what it’ll look like, or how it will feel to use it, but the only proof I need to know that it’s eventually coming is the $99 Apple TV sitting on my entertainment center and the HDMI cable snaking out of the back of it and coiling up… into my Samsung TV.

If you have any understanding of what it is that Apple does and why they are successful, you know that the company Steve Jobs built could never stand for that.

Image: Funky Gadgets

Only in the world of technology could a company get away with calling these earbuds “wireless.” The product is called the BackBeat Go, and the company is Plantronics, and to anybody with more than zero eyes, it’s clear that they are connected by a wire.

Not so, according to the product blurb: “No wires, no hassle, no compromise,” it says. To which we might add “no brains.” Even better, just a few lines later you can read this sentence: “Inline controls let you pause music to take a call, change volume, or skip tracks.”

That would be inline with what, exactly, Plantronics? I thought you said that there were no wires?

Still, once we get over the huge elephant in Plantronics living room, these look like a nice pair of Bluetooth earbuds. They sit deep in your canals to isolate outside noise, have inline controls as noted above and will show up in your iPhone or iPad’s status bar with a battery meter (Android users will need to download an app for that. Suckers).

The downside of this tiny 13-gram package is woefully short battery life. Listening time is just four hours, and talk time, which you’d think would be shorter than listening time, is 4.5 hours. Charging is done via micro USB.

How much are these “cordless” headphones? $99.

Source: Plantronics

According to Velti, new iPad growth is slow compared to the iPad 2

Mobile marketing and advertising firm Velti recently released its April Data report, which includes several interesting and surprising details including AT&T’s lead as U.S. iPhone provider.  The most surprising piece of information in the report, however, is that adoption rates for the new iPad appear to have peaked and slowed.

Velti’s report, which is based on mobile device ad impressions, shows the new iPad’s growth into the mobile market slowed after an initial surge. Currently, the new iPad represents 8% of mobile ad impressions. Last year, at the same point in its release cycle, the iPad 2 had already captured 13% of the market.

Velti notes that this slower growth could be due to competition from other platforms including the Kindle Fire and Galaxy Tab as well as competition from other iPad models.

Apple’s option of a cheaper iPad 2 is one game changer between last year’s iPad 2 release and this year’s new iPad launch. Another is the fact that outside of the retina display, the new iPad doesn’t offer the as many immediate feature changes from the iPad 2 as the iPad 2 did compared to the original iPad – meaning existing iPad 2 owners haven’t run out to upgrade in great numbers.

Slower new iPad growth doesn’t mean that Apple is falling behind in the overall mobile market.

The company maintains a lead over Android for the number of ad impressions (55% to 45%) indicating more overall mobile browser and app use. Likewise, Apple leads in the number of individual devices in the mobile market capturing the top three slots.

• iPhone – 20.4%
• iPod touch – 14.9%
• iPad – 13.4%

Velti notes that these numbers don’t jive with reports of Samsung device shipments topping Apple and other companies.

Apple’s devices are still far and away the leader in impression volume, despite recent claims that Samsung is the new leader in smartphone and tablet shipments.

As far as the mix of U.S. carriers, Velti shows that AT&T is still has majority of U.S. iPhone customers. AT&T represents 61% of iPhone ad impressions followed by Verizon at 28% and Sprint at 11%.

Velti’s data also shows that T-Mobile is being marginalized in the smartphone and tablet markets by not being able to offer the iPhone. T-Mobile represents just 1% of broader smartphone and tablet market. At the same time, Sprint has gained and additional 6% of that market since January, most likely because of iPhone 4S sales.

The full report is available on Velti’s website.

Source: Velti

The BBC is planning to take home the gold in Olympic coverage this year as they prepare to provide live coverage of every London 2012 sport from every venue throughout the day.

“We will be bringing live coverage of every Olympic Sport from every venue, through a combination of BBC One and BBC Three and up to 24 simultaneous streams live online on PC, mobile, tablet or connected TV

BBC has big plans for its various sports apps on both mobile and smartTVs. Custom built BBC Sport apps for Android and iOS will allow users to watch live video on the go and ensure they never miss a moment.

Roger Mosey, BBC Director, London 2012, says: “The London 2012 Olympic Games is likely to be the biggest sporting event in the UK in our lifetimes and the BBC’s coverage will ensure that our audiences need never miss a moment.

With up to 2,500 hours of coverage spread across multiple outlets, users will have access to:

• The BBC Olympics mobile browser site, accessible across all mobile devices, will mirror much of the desktop experience, while audiences can also access coverage through tablets and connected TV.
• The BBC’s Red Button service for the Olympics on Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat will offer audiences access to up to 24 live streams, while there will be an additional 24-hour channel of extra BBC Olympics content available via the BBC Red Button for audiences with Freeview and BT Vision.
• The BBC Sport app for connected TVs will give audiences access to the BBC’s interactive coverage, while Virgin Media TiVo users will be able to access this content via the BBC Red Button.
• The BBC Sport website will offer a page for every sport, country, athlete and venue. The coverage includes live updates, Twitter visualisations and comments from across social media.
• A 24-hour digital radio station, Radio 5 live Olympic Extra, will complement BBC Radio 5 live and BBC Radio 5 live Sports Extra for the duration of the Games.

It should be quite an exciting time for London as well as the Olympic games, as we approach the first truly ‘Digital Olympics’ in history. The Android and iOS apps should become available soon and we’ll keep you updated so you can grab them from your respective app store.

For more information on what will be the most comprehensive coverage of an Olympic Games ever, be sure to visit the source link below.

Source: BBC