We’re in the holiday spirit here at Cult of Mac, and it’s with that spirit in mind that we are offering a great freebie to our valued readers. With MacX Video Converter Pro, you can convert various videos for playback on all your Apple devices.
Samsung and Apple are the only two smartphone vendors currently seeing growth in the United States, and although it was Apple that saw the most between September and November of last year, it’s Samsung who will attract most customers throughout 2013. The Korean electronics giant will see 35% growth over the next 12 months, according to Strategy Analytics, further increasing the lead over its arch rival in Cupertino.
Yesterday, we reported with intense skepticism the “rumor” (in actuality, baseless speculation) that Apple had offered Waze, the social turn-by-turn navigation company, $500 million in a potential buy-out deal.
The deal didn’t make a lot of sense for a number of reasons, and now, it looks we were right to scoff. Techcrunch — the same publication that initially publicized the so-called Apple/Waze “deal” — is now saying that no deal has ever been on the table.
Apple and Samsung are the only two smartphone manufacturers currently seeing any growth in the United States. The pair are slowly eating away at the market share held by their rivals, including LG, Motorola, Research in Motion, and HTC. In the three months leading up to November 2012, Samsung increased its market share from 25.7% to 26.9%, but Apple is catching up with the Cupertino company enjoying slightly more growth.
Microsoft has beaten Apple and Google to the acquisition of R2 Studios, a small home entertainment technology startup from the founder of Sling Media. R2 is famous for an Android app that allows users to control things like lighting and appliances throughout their homes, and its thought the company’s technology will help Microsoft push its Xbox console even further into home entertainment.
HTC China president Ray Yam believes the Taiwanese company’s new licensing deal with Apple will allow it to “take broader steps” and create better products this year. The Droid DNA maker recently entered into a 10-year licensing agreement with Apple that covers all current, pending, and future patents, and ended the litigation ongoing between the two companies.
This could be the first ripple of a very big wave: the Commercial Times out of Taiwan is claiming that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (or TSMC) is about to start trial production for Apple’s A6X SoC this quarter.
Why is this a big deal? Apple’s arch-nemesis Samsung currently manufacturers the A6X chip… and it might herald Apple shifting all of its multi-billion dollar chip business away.
Samsung’s request to keep some of its sales data sealed in an ongoing patent dispute with Apple in the United States has been denied by District Judge Lucy Koh. The Korean electronics giant wanted to keep its figures secret while it appeals an earlier sealing order, but it will now have to disclose the information to Apple.
A new year is upon us, and with that comes a time to refresh and renew your Mac. Cult of Mac Deals has a stellar offer to kick off the new year – one that will give you 4 powerful apps that will make your Mac faster, smarter, and stronger. And all for just $25!
2012 was a great year for Apple, and one of the most exciting for them in years. This year brought not only a myriad of new products, like the iPad mini and iPhone 5, but innovative software and services as well such as OS X Mountain Lion and iOS 6.
As 2012 comes to a close, let’s take a look back at Apple’s accomplishments for the year. If you’d like, you can also take a look back at 2011’s year in review here.
2012 was a very different year for Apple. For starters, it was Tim Cook’s first year as CEO. While much of Apple has remained the same, Cook has definitely shown that he is a different type of leader than his predecessor. Apple is evolving into something new.
Between four press events and the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, Apple announced an unprecedented slew of new products in 2012. Every single major product was refreshed to some extent, which leaves even more speculation as to what Apple has up its sleeve for 2013.
There have been key executive firings and hirings, heated lawsuits, and scandals. In the midst of everything, Apple managed to become the most valuable company on earth.
While there are many big Apple moments from this past year, we’ve gathered what we think are the 10 most notable stories. Here they are:
This is an awesome spot by Daring Fireball’s John Gruber: the Retina assets in iTunes 11 are so detailed that the Up Next icon actually has tiny little numbers next to the bullet points. Check it out full-size here.
Thanks to affordable offerings like the Amazon Kindle Fire HD and the Google Nexus 7, Android tablets continue to increase their market share and claw away at the iPad’s lead. However, Apple’s tablet remains king of the web, accounting for a whopping 87% of tablet web traffic in North America.
Two-man Detour Games wants to give the casual crowd a hardcore game, with RAW, a game currently in development. It will hopefully get funded as a Kickstarter project, too.
RAW will be a 2D action platformer/runner on rails for Android, OUYA, and desktop computers, and hopefully on iOS as well, if the project meets its stretch goals. In it, a cyborg juggernaut named RAW must keep running to stay charged up.
Over at DesignBoom, they’ve put up an incredible gallery of early Apple II and Macintosh product designs that never saw the light of day by Hartmut Esslinger, a designer who founded Frog Design, the company that Apple partnered with through the 1980s and 1990s. There are even some products that Apple never made, like a stylus-controlled smartphone from the early 80s called the “MacPhone,” a precursor to the MacMini called the Baby Mac, and what appears to be a Mac with dual flatscreens.
We’ve picked some of our favorite designs and put them after the jump, but by all means, head to Designboom for more.
After the mainstream media turned its attention to Apple and Foxconn, the Fair Labor Association (FLA) got involved to help ensure quality factory life for Chinese workers. For years, Apple has also been performing detailed audits of over 800 facilities where parts for its products are made and assembled. The Cupertino company has been beefing up its requirements in order to set the bar even higher in the supply chain. All of the combined efforts have resulted in better overall working conditions and pay raises for Foxconn employees. But that doesn’t mean there’s no more progress to be made.
I wish it wasn’t two days after Christmas, because the Chisel 5 is the iPhone 5 dock I want. Designed by iSkelter, it’s just a slab of beautiful bambo, carved out to perfectly ensconce the iPhone 5 and prop it up in landscape or portrait mode with the Lightning cable snaking through. $39. What’s not to like?
For a couple of glorious years, Apple’s iPod nano came in a form factor that could be worn as a watch. Then this year, as Apple is wont to do with the permanently schizo iPod nano line, Apple switched to another design entirely, leaving fans who want a bonafide iWatch in the lurch. But perhaps there is method in Apple’s madness, as a new rumor suggests that Cupertino has phased out the watch-like nano to build their own Bluetooth Smart Watch for 2013.
Back from the holidays, Apple has just filed a preliminary proxy statement with the SEC today in preparation for its annual shareholder meeting in 2013. It’s filled with a lot of insight into the inner workings of our favorite company, and while the biggest news is probably Tim Cook’s remuneration for 2012, there are also other interesting tidbits, including Apple’s resistance to the idea of the appointment of a Board Committe on Human Rights, and the fact that Scott Forstall’s departure lead to a pay raise for the rest of Apple’s executive team.
It’s that time of year again. A time where we are getting busier and busier by the hour. A time where there doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day. And a time where stellar deals come along all across the web.
But very few of these deals pack a ton of apps that not only offer a little something for everyone, but they all offer the ability to save significant pockets of time for everyone as well. That’s what The Mac Productivity Bundle 3.0 does, and while the regular price of all 9 apps would be $1150 if sold separately, Cult of Mac Deals has it for just $50!
Picking up a new skill is a very popular new year’s resolution. And this Cult of Mac Deals offer will go a long way in helping you pick up a skill that can bring both pleasure and profit – designing iOS apps.
The iOS App Design Course bundle is just $79 for a limited time, and if you have beginner level knowledge of Photoshop and a desire to learn iOS app design, this course trio will help you quickly learn how to design both iPhone and iPad apps and icons.
Apple just posted its new iPad mini ad, “I’ll Be Home,” in which an adorable young girl, shown on an iPad, plays “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” on the ukulele via FaceTime to her Grandfather, who is shown on an iPad mini.
It’s thirty seconds of holiday cheer, presented without comment or text, with only an Apple logo and some suggestion of snow at the very end. It’s a sweet little video, and honestly, Apple, you had me at ukulele music.
Apple has set the gold standard for warranty and customer support with its successful AppleCare program, and now Amazon apparently wants in, having filed a trademark for a service that sounds suspiciously like, well, AmazonCare.
Who’s winning in the United States: Android or Apple? If you’ve been watching AAPL’s shares, you might think Google’s mopping the floor with Apple, but you’d be wrong. According to new data, Apple now commands 53.3% of the U.S. smartphone market.
Blake Krikorian, the guy who made the Slingbox, founded a new startup last year called “id8 Group R2 Studios.” Since then, R2 Studios has released an Android app for controlling a home’s heating and lightning with Cestron. The firm also owns some secretive patents relating to remote device and interface control.
According to a new from The Wall Street Journal, a number of big tech companies (including Google and Apple) have been in talks with R2 Studios about a possible buyout: