Imagine for a moment that your three year old daughter has a disability that stops her from using her voice to communicate. Then imagine that a combination of an iPad and a specialized app gave her the ability to talk to you, requesting things, express her needs, and even say, “Daddy, I love you.”
I don’t know about you, but I’d see that iPad and app as some sort of technological miracle.
Now, imagine that the app was pulled from the app store.
Apple announced a brand spanking new Maps application alongside iOS 6 at WWDC yesterday, and the Cupertino company has ditched Google Maps for its own mapping technologies. While much of the new Maps app is powered solely by Apple, TomTom is referenced directly in the new iOS 6 Maps app as well.
While the iOS 6 Maps app is still in the very early beta stages, Apple has baked in new features that make it a killer Google Maps replacement, including turn-by-turn navigation, Siri integration, and an enhanced “Flyover” 3D viewing mode.
The new Maps app that Apple showed off at WWDC yesterday has made it pretty clear that the company will be ditching Google Maps in iOS 6. That means beautiful new 3D maps, voice guided turn-by-turn navigation, and more. But before you get too excited, just remember this: As soon as Google leaved, so does Street View.
This morning at WWDC, Apple unveiled a brand new Maps application, complete with a stunning 3D mode and redesigned user interface. In this video, Cult Of Mac goes hands-on with the new application. Spoiler alert: It’s awesome.
Today at 10AM Pacific, Tim Cook will take the stage at the Moscone Center in San Francisco for Apple’s annual WWDC keynote, and if the rumor mill is to be believed, he’ll be hard pressed to fit everything Cupertino is ready to announce into its 90 minute presentation. We’re looking at massive upgrades to the entire Mac line, the official unveiling of iOS 6, loads of new apps, and maybe possibly even our first glimpse of the iPhone 5 and Apple HDTV.
Here’s what we think Apple will (and won’t) announce today, ranked in order of likelihood.
Chinese forum WeiPhone.com has posted alleged download links to Apple’s iOS 6 and Safari 6 developer preview files ahead of WWDC tomorrow. Apple is expected to introduce the software on Monday, June 11th and release a preview to developers. The links provided by WeiPhone are currently inactive, but they will assumedly start serving iOS 6 and Safari 6 beta downloads for supported iOS devices once Apple lifts the curtain tomorrow.
Following the privacy fiasco surrounding iOS user tracking and Apple’s deprecation of the UDID, a report today says that the company is planning to release a new tool for developers that aids in tracking app users. According to The Wall Street Journal, the software tool’s “new anonymous identifier is likely to rely on a sequence of numbers that isn’t tied to a specific device.”
Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) has been a staple event for the company since since the turn of the 21st century. The first ever WWDC was held in 1983, but it wasn’t until 2002 that Apple started using the conference as a major launchpad for new products. Since then, Steve Jobs and Co. have unveiled products like the Power Mac G5, Mac Pro, iPhone, and plenty of software. Because WWDC has always been a developer-focused conference, Apple uses the event to announce new apps, OS X versions, major iOS updates, etc. For an Apple fan, it doesn’t get much better than WWDC.
With WWDC 2012 set to kick off on Monday, June 11th, we decided to take a look back at the big announcements Apple made at WWDC over the past decade.
The City of Cupertino has just released a slew of new plans and technical drawings for Apple’s proposed Spaceship Campus, which is set to finish construction in 2015.
The most interesting part of these plans, though? The plans for a massive new subterranean auditorium for future Apple press announcements. This will be where Apple unveils products like the ninth-generation iPhone, the seventh-generation iPad, the future Apple HDTV and other magical gadgets we haven’t even thought of ye.
Here’s some pictures of the auditorium. It’s like a giant secret lair!
Rogue Amoeba’s AirFoil Speakers Touch app was recently pulled from the App Store by Apple without any notice. Before getting yanked, the app was updated with an “Enhanced Audio Receiving” feature that essentially turned an iOS device into an AirPlay audio receiver. Apple didn’t like Rogue Amoeba’s use of receiving audio through AirPlay, and the company released a short comment saying “Apps that use non-public APIs will be rejected.” That was it.
The good news is that AirFoil Speakers Touch is back in the App Store after a back and forth with Apple. The bad news is that the newest app version is missing the aforementioned AirPlay audio feature. According to Rogue Amoeba, Apple reps admitted that the whole situation was “poorly handled” on their end.
We’ve seen a handful of tablet cases — especially for the iPad — that aim to turn your slate into a MacBook Air lookalike. But the ClamBook from ClamCase is the first solution we’ve seen that’s designed for the iPhone and Android smartphones, and it promises to “change the way you view smartphones.”
Built from sleek aluminum, the ClamBook is incredibly thin and light. It comes to life when you hook it up to your smartphone to see its content on the widescreen display, which is accompanied by a full-size QWERTY keyboard and a multitouch trackpad.
Following numerous claims that Apple will abandon Google Maps and release proprietary mapping technology this year, The Wall Street Journal today reports that Apple is indeed throwing out Google Maps once and for all. Apple showed signs of moving away from Google Maps when it used open-source mapping technology in its recently launched iPhoto for iOS app.
Apple has been reportedly “hatching the plan to evict Google Maps from the iPhone for years,” and the company is expected to debut its completely new app “later this year.”
The iPad continued to dominate the tablet space through the first quarter of 2012. That’s the news from ABI Research, which publishes a quarterly report known as the Media Tablet Market Share Tracker. Although most companies with products in the tablet space did see year-on-year growth, none was able to come close to wresting the number one spot away from Apple. Apple’s commanding lead translated to 10 times the number of shipments by Samsung, which returned to being the second biggest player in the tablet space.
According to the latest report by ABI Research, there is no tablet market… only an iPad market.
Photographer Henry Hargreaves did the unthinkable. He took the world’s most beloved Apple gadgets and submerged them in deep-fried, fattening, greasy goodness. Call it sacrilegious, but the photos turned out pretty well.
It’s June 1st, and that means Apple’s deadline for when Mac developers need to have their apps sandboxed has come to pass. After months and months of extending the deadline to iron out technical details, all apps submitted to the Mac App Store must now obey Apple’s sandboxing requirements. All existing Mac App Store apps cannot be updated until they meet the guidelines.
While sandboxing will mean safer and simpler Mac apps, there are some negative effects developers have to consider.
Google sent out invites to certain publications this morning for a mysterious Maps event that will be taking place on Wednesday, June 6th. With the plea to come see the “next dimension of Google Maps,” the company plans to show a “sneak peek” at upcoming features for its mapping technology.
Sure, the event sounds interesting, but the fact that Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is taking place 5 days later really adds fuel to the fire.
Apple CEO Tim Cook recently told the world to “stay tuned” to what his company has planned with Facebook. The social network has been rumored to appear in iOS for years, but 2012 looks to be the year Apple and Facebook finally join forces.
iOS 6, internally codenamed “Sundance,” will feature Facebook integration, reports MG Siegler of TechCrunch. The integration will be similar to the way Twitter is currently implemented in iOS 5, although Apple has yet to iron out the kinks in how sharing will work.
Last week’s release of the much anticipated Absinthe 2.0 jailbreak didn’t just benefit iPhone and iPad owners: it also gives a new lease on life to the second-gen Apple TV. Now Firecore has released a major update to their aTV Flash software, and the new goes far to supercharge your set-top box with great new functionality the stock firmware doesn’t offer.
The flaws and future of Siri, his thoughts on Steve Jobs, the long rumored Apple television – Apple CEO Tim Cook took the stage at the 10th annual All Things D conference, and boy, did he have a lot to say.
Join us in our brand new CultCast episode as we pick apart Tim’s D10 interview and tell you why he possibly confirmed the existence of Apple’s long-rumored, top-secret television.
And is the Mac Pro about to get the axe? We’ll tell you what we think.
All that and our answers to your questions on our brand new CultCast. Subscribe now in iTunes and read on through for our show notes.
Apple has begun a hiring push to find lead design engineers to help them make the long-rumored iPizza a reality, Cult of Mac has exclusively learned.
The advert, posted today on Apple’s jobs board, calls for a candidate with at least four years experience in the Neapolitan supply chain. Intriguingly, one of the skills required for the position is the “ability to hand stretch the pizza (without using a rolling pin),” suggesting that the new iPizza will be built with a revolutionary new manufacturing process.
Talk of an iPizza is not new. Over the years, Steve Jobs was spotted many times in Silicon Valley researching slices of pizza, leading to ongoing speculation that Apple was interested in entering the saucy Italian pie industry.
While most new stories covering Internet piracy talk in terms of the entertainment industries and major associations like the MPAA and RIAA, software piracy is often part of the discussion and debate as well. While entertainment companies collectively call for extreme legal measures like SOPA and ACTA, software companies also battle piracy outside the legal arena by using extreme anti-pirating measures built into their products (and their accompanying license agreements). Microsoft is probably best example of a company that goes to great lengths to limit pirating of its products.
With digital piracy being a major issue in many countries over the past several months, the Business Software Association added user surveys to its annual piracy study. The results show that, despite measures from software makers, existing anti-piracy laws, and pending legislation, more than half of all Internet users admit to pirating at least one piece of software.
Apple’s iPad Smart Cover is a wonderful product. Not only is it pretty much the most minimal yet versatile iPad case around, it’s fun, attractive aesthetic — inspired by Japanese bath covers — hides some serious engineering beneath the surface thanks to its 30+ odd magnets.
So it’s a great product. Did you know that for Apple, though, Smart Covers alone are a $2 billion a year business?
Ever wondering if you’d be better off working for Apple than your current company? A job at Cupertino isn’t guaranteed to make you rich, but they do pay their talent fairly well, especially their engineers and designers. Here’s a list of some of the most common positions within Apple, along with their average salary, in ranking order.
Apple has reportedly bought small Italian startup Redmatica, a company that specializes in making digita music-editing apps that all run on the Mac.