The city of Cupertino this week published updated plans for Apple’s proposed new campus ahead of possible approval next month. A city council meeting is scheduled to go ahead on October 15, and providing all goes well, Apple will finally be able to begin clearing the land that the “Spaceship” campus will be built upon.
It was an impromptu family reunion whose RSVP list grew rapidly. In celebration of the recent rebirth of two prototype Twiggy Macs, many legends of Cupertino relived memories and reconnected with old friends in a private party held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.
Attendees, many of whom held Apple badge numbers in the single or double digits, included (among others) Steve Wozniak, Andy Hertzfeld, Daniel Kottke, Chris Espinosa, Guy Kawasaki, Jerry Manock, Terry Oyama, Larry and Patti Kenyon, Rod Holt, Randy Wigginton and Wendell Sander. The soiree was arranged by longtime Apple employee Dan Kottke and Gabreal Franklin, former president of Encore systems and owner of one of the resurrected Twiggy Macs.
Apple’s venerable alumni laughed and reminisced with each other while playing with the rare prototype, commenting on early aspects of the design and who did what. “It’s got an hourglass cursor,” Andy Hertzfeld said. “I don’t remember that. Hey, I wrote that. It seems slow to me.”
Mobile start-up Bump just announced that it has been acquired by Google in a blog post on Monday.
The company was founded in 2008, making a name for itself on the hot technology of bumping phones together to share contact data. The app has been downloaded over 100 million times, and continues to get updates. The same team released a fairly popular photo-sharing app called Flock last year, as well.
The acquisition was reported on AllThingsD as netting the company somewhere between $30 and $60 million.
Attention, all potential iPhone modders, casemakers, obsessives and tinkerers. Apple has just posted detailed schematics of its new iPhone 5s and 5c handsets to the Apple Developer Portal.
With the cooler months approaching (at least here in the Northern hemisphere), many of us turn our attention towards taking on a new hobby or learning something new that can take our work – and even our lives – to new heights. There are more opportunities to generate revenue from hobbies than ever before thanks to technology, and Cult of Mac Deals has an offer that certainly fits this category.
For a limited time you can get The Ultimate Xcode Fundamentals Course, where you’ll learn how to build and launch iOS apps – even if you’ve never looked at Xcode before. This video course is only $79 courtesy of Cult of Mac Deals.
Hot off the Apple event—it’s our iPhone 5s and 5c reactions on our all-new CultCast. We’ll take a look at what’s new in iOS 7 and each new iPhone, and we’ll walk step-by-step through all the powerful new tech Apple unveiled throughout their 60-minute keynote. No stone goes unturned…
Have a few laughs whilst getting caught up on each week’s finest Apple stories! Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the unadulterated audio enjoyment begin. Show notes up next.
Did you know Sir Jony Ive is a huge Burberry fan? True story. He went to London this past summer to see the runway fashion show put on by Burberry, as you can see in the photo to the right.
Interestingly, Apple on Thursday announced a surprise collaboration with Burberry, a London fashion brand sometimes unfortunately associated with lowlifes, known in Britain as “chavs.”
Ive will certainly be happy today* to hear that Burberry is teaming up with Apple to use the not-yet-released iPhone 5s to capture and share images and video from the upcoming runway show in London, taking place this coming Monday, September 16.
This new collaboration is inteded to showcase the new clothing line, of course, but also to show how great the iPhone 5s iSight camera is, with it’s new, larger pixels, exposure area, and lens. It will allow photographers at Burberry to take high quality photos and high resolution video of the runway models, product details, and moments backstage.
Just imagine all the slo-mo.
Do you remember this story, about how China’s network of scalpers were booking up all of Apple’s Genius Bar appointments en masse and then re-selling them on the black market to the highest bidder?
Well, Apple’s figured out a way to partially thwart it: they’re now asking you to sign in with your Apple ID if you want a Genius Bar appointment.
Well look at that! Just one day after Apple announces that it’s going to replace the iPhone 5 model with not one, but two new iPhone models, the iPHone 5c and the iPhone 5s, RadioShack has jumped into the fray with a new trade-in program.
Cult of Mac got an email today from the electronics retailer, which said it wanted to share the current trade-in values, as well as discounted prices, for older model iPhones. All you need to do is visit RadioShack’s Trade and Save website to check on the value of your own device, and then bring it in to the nearest RadioShack (or send it in via an online process) for trading.
Way back in 2011, Apple unveiled Cards, a new app that allowed you to create beautiful cards on your iPhone, then Apple would print them out and mail it out for you.
I always liked the idea of Cards, and kept it around on my iPhone for the last couple of years, thinking someday I might have the opportunity to actually use it. That opportunity never really came around for me, though, and I guess I’m not the only one: Apple has just quietly killed Cards for good.
For Americans, AppleCare+ is a fantastic service that takes a lot of the background stress out of having an iPhone. For just $99 and $49 per incident, Apple will replace your iPhone up to two times for accidents or damages, due to clumsiness, accidents, or whatever. I replaced a completely watersoaked iPhone 5 through AppleCare+, and a screen-cracked iPhone 4s. It really takes a load off.
Until now, AppleCare+ was only available to Americans, and was only available for iPhones and iPads. But yesterday, Apple unveiled some big changes to AppleCare+ that makes it accessible to Europeans for the first time.
Tim Cook and company rocked today’s keynote. As expected, the iPhone 5s was announced with a new processor, fingerprint sensor and motion chip alongside the new cost-conscious and brightly-colored iPhone 5c.
Craig Frederhigi spent some time on Jony Ive’s upcoming iOS 7, running through the main features, most of which we’d heard back at WWDC in June, including Control Center, Search anywhere, more textured ringtones and the like.
The two new models of iPhone were the focus of today’s event. CEO Tim Cook said that the iPhone business was getting so big they decided to replace the iPhone 5 with two new models. The iPhone 5c looks to aim directly at kids and perhaps budget-conscious consumers with bright colors and the ability to purchase contrasting soft rubber cases. The iPhone 5s is a tour-de-force of new technology, including the much-anticipated fingerprint sensor, Touch ID, and the new A7 and M7 chips.
The keynote was even more densely packed with info, of course, so we’ve broken everything down into tasty, bite-size nuggets of information so you can get essentials of what happened today without having to read 30,000 different blog posts.
Here’s everything that Apple announced at today’s keynote:
Like a bizzare flashback to the web of the 1990s, Apple has colored the background of its new iPhone pages, with a flat gold background for the gold iPhone 5s and light blue for the iPhone 5c.
While we certainly appreciate the appeal of new colors to grace our upcoming iPhones, we’re pretty shocked that someone allowed these two flat blank backgrounds to go unchallenged up on Apple’s site.
What do you think? Forward-thinking colors, or flashback web design?
Source: Apple.com
Apple just announced the much-anticipated iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c at an event in Cupertino, and both devices will go on sale next Friday, September 20. The iPhone 5s hopes to compete with the latest high-end devices from the likes of Samsung, Nokia, and HTC, while the iPhone 5c aims to be a decent midrange offering that’ll get you into Apple’s ecosystem without breaking the bank.
So how do these devices stack up against their rivals? We’ve compared the iPhone 5s with the Galaxy S4, the HTC One, the Nokia Lumia 1020, and other popular devices to help you establish which one provides you with the most bang for your buck. We’ve also thrown in the iPhone 5c for good measure so that you can decide whether its price tag is as good as it seems.
Apple brought Donald Mustard, co-founder of ChAIR entertainment, up on stage today at the iPhone keynote in Cupertino. Mustard talked about the incredible performance of the new 64-bit A7 chip, saying the new iPhone 5s was five times as fast as the original iPhone 5.
The demo onstage was reported by live-bloggers as stutter-free and gorgeous. Mustard said that the conclusion to the Infinity Blade Trilogy, Infinity Blade III, has huge areas to explore, each one larger than the original size of the entire original Infinity Blade game itself.
Infinity Blade III will be available alongside the iPhone 5s when it releases. Last year’s game got canned, so hopefully it actually ships this time.
Image: Techcrunch
If you’re hoping to pick up one of Apple’s new iPhones next Friday, but you need a little cash to put towards it, then it might be worth heading down to your local Walmart with your old smartphone. The retailer is set to launch its own smartphone trade-in program, which will give you between $50 and $300 when you hand over your old device and sign into a new plan.
Samsung has earned quite a name for itself copying Apple’s most successful products, but it’s not only in smartphones, tablets, computers, and accessories where the South Korean company sources its inspiration from its closest rivals. British manufacturer Dyson is suing Samsung for allegedly ripping off one of its inventions in a new vacuum cleaner that was unveiled at IFA in Berlin last week.
It’s looking increasingly likely that when Apple takes the stage today at the official iPhone launch event today that they will actually be unveiling seven new iPhone colors.
When Apple introduced Photo Stream to iCloud back in 2011, the Cupertino company made it incredibly quick and easy for its users to share their favorite photos with their friends and family without syncing them to their computer first. But Photo Stream has a downside, and that is that it’s only available on iOS.
Fortunately, there are plenty of awesome alternatives with cross-platform support, and one of those is Kicksend. Not only does Kicksend let you share photos with friends — regardless of the smartphone platform they choose — but it also lets you print and send real photos to those who don’t have a smartphone at all.
The time ’round on the Cult of Casts: it’s finally confirmed! New iPhones are coming September 10th… we’ll run through our expectations for the big day and offer a bold prediction of a big 5S spec bump. Then, Apple’s about to do something no tech company has ever done, and… seriously Samsung, a smart watch?
And stick around for our new segment, CultCast Second Hour, and catch our conversation with professional video editor and visual effects artist Mike Gaines as we talk the pros and cons Final Cut X; what software the editing pros use; the best cameras for indie projects; and all the Mac gear you need for a solid video product rig; plus so much more.
Have a few laughs and get caught up on all the finest Apple stories in the land. Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the unadulterated audio enjoyment begin. Show notes up next.
This is the very first column for Cult of Mac written by an actual Apple retail store genius. Our genius must remain anonymous, but other than “Who are you, anyway?” ask anything you want about what goes on behind that slick store facade.
Answers will be published first in Cult of Mac’s Magazine on Newsstand. Send your questions to [email protected] with “genius” in the subject line.
To start this off, we asked the Genius, “What are the top 3 questions you get asked at work at the Apple Store?”
Here they are:
1. When is the new iPhone/iPad/Mac coming out?
We’re not allowed to divulge anything about upcoming products, or address rumors. If we even talk about rumors with customers we could lose our jobs. When a customer asks if I know when a new product is coming out, my response is simply, “We don’t know when it’s coming out. We find out when everyone else does, when it’s announced.”
But don’t you really know?
No. We all read the same rumors as you do, but Apple’s not going to tell employees at the Apple Store when stuff is coming out because how many of us would leak it? We would instantly tell our friends and ruin Apple’s marketing plans, so they won’t tell us until the day Apple announces it publicly.
2. Do I have to make an appointment? Can’t I just come in?
Company policy is that yes, we can accept walk-in appointments. But truly, can we? Not always. Some days we have a full day of open reservations for customers to fill in as scheduling allows. Other days you might have to come back a couple hours later for an open reservation.
The Genius Bar is a lot like a car dealership service center. You can’t just drive up to Toyota and ask for your Camry to be serviced without an appointment. Most of the time you need an appointment for those things because there’s a limited number of technicians.
Bottom line, the easiest way to get into the Apple Store Genius Bar is to make an appointment. Go onto the website or use the Apple Store app and you can get seen right away instead of waiting for hours if you just come by.
3. Am I really getting a NEW iPhone when I pay $49 for Apple to replace a broken iPhone covered by AppleCare+?
My line is that, yes, it is a new iPhone, but Apple terms and conditions state that “Apple may use parts or products that are new or equivalent to new in reliability and performance,” meaning the iPhone you’re getting is really “reconditioned,” not straight from the factory like it is when you buy a brand new iPhone.
We’re told to say that they aren’t “refurbished” because they’ve been totally gutted down to the frame. Apple’s stance is that they really are brand new devices, in the sense that they get a new enclosure, display, and innards, but there are a lot of parts that have been recycled from old iPhones, like the metal frame and some other parts.
We know they’re just rebuilding them. I’ve seen some that had a screw missing, others with a bad display, but it’s only been a small percentage. I’ve seen reconditioned iPhones that lasted twice as long as a new iPhone, so they’re not necessarily worse.
Apple just sent out an email to developers, notifying them that three new downloads are now available: OS X Server Preview 7 for OS X Mavericks, OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5, and Windows Migration Assistant.
Apple just sent out an email to developers that promotes the upcoming Mavericks fature of Safari Push Notifications. The subject line reads, “Get ready for Safari Push Notifications,” and features the above image, with a push notification from well-known site, CNN, prominently displayed.
I’ve got a MacBook Air, an iPad, and an iPhone. There are certain apps – some that are made by Apple and some that aren’t that are only at their best when they sync across all three platforms. Here are some examples – and these are apps I use every single day:
But not all apps function like the above ones. Some won’t sync across all platforms (especially those outside of the Apple ecosystem) and keeping tabs on which ones sync what can become cumbersome.
That’s where SyncMate comes in – an app that Cult of Mac Deals currently has available for just $15.99.
Iterate, iterate, iterate. That’s the Apple mantra, according to anyone who pays attention: Launch a groundbreaking device that changes the entire market and people will flock to buy your improved version of a category that may have existed already for years. Then, every September, and pretty much every year, you release an incremental update.
Year over year, it doesn’t look like much is happening. But like a glacier carving valleys from mountains, the compound result is amazing.
Except we’re not talking about Apple here. We’re talking about Amazon and the Kindle.