Whether you’re building a native Mac app or a web app, you can no longer get away with those alone. You need to go mobile with your app. There’s just too many opportunities you’ll miss out on otherwise considering how widely used mobile devices are these days.
Not having a mobile version of your app can really hamper your user base. But it doesn’t need to cost you a fortune to have one. Cult of Mac Deals has an offer right now that features one year of unlimited mobile app development for just $99.
Patent trolls are everywhere these days, swaming over the hills of Silicon Valleys on the back of their patent wargs. Everyone is dealing with the frivolous lawsuits patent trolls make a living bringing against any technology company that experiences even a modicum of success, but hey, go figure: ultimately, patent trolls are more interested in suing Apple than anyone else.
And I’m not just a podcaster that sits at home and records on my MacBook Air with my Blue Spark Digital microphone. I’m a podcaster that likes to record on the go. That means I need to have something that allows me to record top-notch sound in a portable package.
So when I team up my iPhone with the iRig iMic, I’m able to do what I do…and do it well.
While the iPhone 5C will certainly be cheaper than Apple’s high-end iPhone 5S, it’s likely to be too expensive still for many in emerging markets. But smartphone clone specialists Goophone already have an Android-powered alternative in the pipeline that will sell for just $100 in China.
Called the “i5C,” the device looks almost identical to the real iPhone 5C based on the leaks we’ve seen. Just don’t expect a Retina display.
Since we’re so reliant on our iPhones and iPads – especially as iOS becomes more prevalent – that we need to give thought on things beyond security on these devices. We need to think about what to do in order to keep our data safe from accidental deletion — including looking at software solutions beyond what’s included with our Mac.
With that in mind, here are 2 things you can do to make sure the chances of losing your iOS data is as slim as possible:
The most vocal and active iPhone and Android fans scoff at the notion that Moto X is the new iPhone. But it’s true.
The iPhone used to represent the most elegant, innovative and fun-to-use smartphone for everybody. That status has now been taken by Motorola’s new “Google phone,” the Moto X.
Joshua Michael Stern, who directed Jobs, calls the late Apple leader a purist. Bingo!
It’s not easy making a posthumous movie about the world’s most well-known and beloved control freak. Just ask Joshua Michael Stern, director of new Steve Jobs biopic Jobs. The film delves into the early days of Apple Computer as Stern paints a picture of a man he calls a “brutally honest character.”
Don’t go into the PG-13 Jobs expecting any bombshells about Apple’s late, great maximum leader — you won’t find any. Instead, what you’ll get is a straightforward cinematic take on Jobs’ early partnership with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak (played mostly for comic relief by Josh Gad), a healthy dose of Hollywood-style boardroom intrigue and a few glimpses into Jobs’ personal life. Many of the scenes, whether factually accurate or not, have been woven into the tapestry of tech history. And Jobs, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2011, obviously isn’t around to fact-check the past or exert his famous control over the final product.
“Part of the shackles for me as a director was, we really had to do everything that was sort of public domain, you know, we couldn’t stray too far off of what we basically knew about Steve,” Stern told Cult of Mac during a recent interview at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in San Francisco. “But the interesting thing about Steve, being such an enigma, there really isn’t that much more to know at all. I mean, everyone knows what they know.”
We first heard that Samsung may be planning to announce its new “Galaxy Gear” smartwatch at its September 4 Galaxy Note III eventearlier this month, but the rumor just got even stronger after it was confirmed by Bloomberg’s reliable sources.
They claim that the South Korean electronics giant will unveil a “wristwatch-like smartphone” powered by Android that will go head-to-head with the new Sony SmartWatch 2, and a potentially competing product from Apple, one of Samsung’s biggest rivals.
Almost half of the top 50 apps on iPad are unavailable or have not been optimized for competing devices that run Google’s Android operating system. That’s according to a new report from Canalys, which believes Google should be doing more to encourage top developers to build high-quality tablet apps for its platform.
Android’s share of the worldwide smartphone market increased yet again during the second quarter of 2013, while the iPhone suffered a slight dip, according to the latest figures from IDC. But Research Manager Ramon Llamas is confident that Apple’s smartphone will recapture more users later this year when the Cupertino company launches the iPhone 5S.
Vodafone U.K. has today announced that it will begin rolling out its new 4G network on August 29 — the same day rival O2 will launch its own 4G service. The company will reach 12 major cities across the country initially, with further expansion planned before the end of this year.
That means that by the end of this month, EE will no longer be the U.K.’s only 4G provider.
Apple rejects a lot of iOS apps and games, but Send Me To Heaven has to be the first that was turned away due to the way in which it is played. The aim of the game is to throw your $700 smartphone up into the air as high as you can, but rather unsurprisingly, Apple thinks that this behavior “could result in damage to the user’s device.”
Fortunately, those who enjoy smashing up expensive items can get it on Android instead.
Over the weekend, President Obama weighed in on the famous Apple vs. Samsung patent disputes by vetoing an import ban proposed by the International Trade Commission that would have prevented Apple from bringing iOS devices older than the iPhone 4S and iPad 3 into the country.
An avowed fan of Apple’s products, it was the first time a U.S. presidential administration had vetoed a product ban by the ITC since 1987, and seemed to signal that the Obama Administration was not going to penalize an American company like Apple in favor of a foreign company like Samsung.
Financial Markets took notice. Samsung’s market cap is down a billion dollars since the vetoing.
It feels like Apple is falling way behind. But I don’t think that’s true.
I believe Apple puts enormous brain power and good judgement into envisioning the Next Big Thing. It takes them a long time to get it to market. But once it’s there, they iterate to perfect the original vision.
In the year or two after Apple launches an iPhone or an iPad, everybody falsely believes Apple can do nothing wrong.
But then, as we get further away from the last launch and closer to the next one, everybody falsely believes Apple can do nothing right.
Completely separate and unrelated to false perceptions about Apple, Google lately has been on fire. And lately they’ve been kicking butt not only in their traditional role of algorithm-based Internet services, but also in Apple’s sandboxes—namely design and hardware.
Apple has never been the kind of company that copies out of a lack of vision. Nor have they avoided copying.
What’s great about Apple is that they develop an ultra-clear vision about how to maximize the user experience, then they make that experience happen regardless of whether the solutions have to be invented, copied or—most commonly—Apple’s own unique spin on something invented elsewhere.
There are many ways in which Apple should not copy Google. But there are six ways Apple should copy Google and, in doing so, make Apple a better company with better products.
When the Podcasts app showed up a bit after the release of iOS 6, we were all excited that Apple was taking its unintended creation of a new media form seriously. While the app is fairly simple to use, there are subtleties that we might miss.
Let’s take a look at some readers’ questions about this Apple-created app and go a bit deeper into using it on our favorite iOS devices.
Motorola has finally revealed all most of the details of the Moto X after months of leaks, and while the handset looks great and is customizable to a fault, what we really want to know is how its specs stack up against the best smartphones out there.
Specs aren’t everything, but it is important to keep in mind whether the Moto X will still be able to run the best apps after 12-24 months. Here’s a chart that GigaOm cooked up that compares the Moto X’s specs to the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S 4.
The big upgrades you can add to your devices aren’t always going to be the ones that can make the biggest difference in how much you get out of them. It’s often the little innovations that can really change the way you use them. One example would be the much-talked about Tile, which goes beyond the iDevices we have and will serve to help us keep tabs on a slew of our personal belongings.
When focusing on little innovations for iDevices, Cablekeeps are a great example of an add-on you can use with your iPhone iPod, or iPad that does something small that can mean a lot more – like getting cable clutter out of your way. Cablekeeps allow you to wrap up the excess cord onto your Apple power adapter so that the unsightly extra length of cord gets wrapped up quickly and neatly for those moments when you want to grab and go everything you’ll need to charge those iDevices of yours. As a frequent traveler, this little innovation can be a big help in keeping the cable clutter down and ensuring you’ve got everything you need to keep powered when you take your iPhone on the road. If you want to get one of these – available in orange, light blue, or green – Cult of Mac Deals has them going for only $12.99 right now.
I’ve got plenty of headphones lying around the house — and I mean a lot.
I’ve got some in-ear style ones, earbud style ones (which generally came from a variety of iDevices), and a couple of pairs — “over ear” headphones — that cover my ears completely. The thing about headphones is that each type is suited for certain activities better than others, which means that having several pairs available isn’t a bad thing at all…especially if you’re into being productive like me and want to have as little friction as possible going from task to task (or, in this case, from audio-related task to audio-related task).
The in-ear and earbud style headphones are my “daily drivers”. They’re the ones I use for everyday activity, mainly because they take up very little space in any sort of carrying bag I’ve got and they just seem so…disposable. But I’ll use the earbuds more often for exercising (running, for example) than the in-ear ones because they are less likely to fall out while I’m being active. My earbuds and in-ear headphones can be found in various spots throughout the house, that way they can be grabbed quickly – no matter what I plan to use them for.
EE has been the United Kingdom’s only 4G provider for around nine months now, but at the end of this month, it’ll finally see some competition. O2 has today announced that its own 4G network will launch on August 29, with prices starting at £26 per month. The service will reach three cities initially, with ten more scheduled to be added by the end of the year.
Your Mac is a finely tuned, intricate machine. Just like a car, every aspect of your Mac plays a crucial role in your computer’s overall performance. But you need to have something that will help you get your Mac running at optimum levels. That’s where this offer from Cult of Mac Deals comes in.
xScan has been specifically designed to help you monitor the behavior and health of your Mac in a simple and straightforward manner. This is the same software many professionals use to diagnose technical issues with Mac operating systems and now you can get xScan for a third of its original price – just $9.99 – during this limited time offer.
Remember that cool iOS 7 Control Center port for Android that hit Google Play earlier this month? Well, Apple obviously didn’t like it, and it has contacted Google to have it pulled. Fortunately for us, developer Hi Tools Studio has already released an updated version to Google Play, so go grab it before it disappears again.
Is Google ready to give up on Android and make the Chrome platform its new priority? That’s the question posed by AppleInsider’s Daniel Eran Dilger in a new report that suggests the search giant is looking to distance itself from the world’s biggest mobile operating system and all of the intellectual property issues that come with it.
But I wouldn’t worry too much if I were you. Android’s not going anywhere.
August is upon us, and that means it’s time once again for a number of U.S. states to hold their annual sales tax holidays. If you’re in the market for a new Mac and reside in one of these states then consider the following tips – especially if you’re thinking about buying a new MacBook Air.
Apple’s “pinch to zoom” patent, which features prominently in a patent dispute against Samsung, has been dismissed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. According to documents filed by Samsung in a U.S. federal court, all 21 claims of the patent have been rejected in a “final office action.”
This week on the ‘ol CultCast: why Google’s new Chromecast is great for us Apple fans; the 5S might be the biggest S-upgrade ever; Apple’s earnings make a low-cost iPhone look likely; how to best connect your iDevice to your car stereo; the Dev Center gets hacked; and then, Tim Cook sings Barbie Girl!
Have a few laughs and get caught up on this week’s best 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 audio adventure begin.
Thanks to Bitcasa for sponsoring this episode. Show notes up next.
