Alex Heath - page 61

The New York Times raised quite a stink at the beginning of this year with its provocative ‘iEconomy’ series on the poor working conditions at Foxconn, Apple’s largest manufacturing partner in China. After running headlines like “In China, human costs are built into an iPad,” the Times has published a new report that more positively portrays Apple’s recent efforts to improve working conditions in the supply chain.

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.

When Tim Cook said that Apple would start manufacturing part of its Mac lineup stateside in 2013, many speculated that the Mac Pro would be the most likely candidate. We postulated that the upcoming Mac Pro would make the perfect choice because it is easier to build and doesn’t sell as well as the other Macs. Apple would be able to test a desktop production line in the U.S. with a niche Mac that won’t create huge consumer demand.

According to a new rumor, it will not be the Mac Pro, but instead the Mac mini that gets manufactured in the U.S. next year.

Mobile app analytics firm Distimo annually publishes a review of the past year’s growth and trends in the app space. For 2012, Distimo compared Apple’s App Store vs. Google Play on Android handsets. While both marketplaces are considered winners in their own right, the App Store is still where the real money comes from.

Google Play has technically been growing faster than the App Store in recent months, but the daily revenues generated in the App Store are still far greater than anything Google has been able to muster.

Open the Apple Maps app in iOS 6, tap the bottom right page curl, and enable Satellite view. All of a sudden whatever you’re looking at will be filled in with realistic details like grass, pavement, and buildings. The Google Maps for iPhone app is capable of displaying satellite imagery as well, but Google has also baked a hidden topography mode into the app.

Thanks to jailbreak tweak developer Ryan Petrich, there’s a new package in Cydia that unlocks the Google Maps for iPhone Topography mode.

Last week, we told you about how Apple’s ridiculous Lightning rules forced a Kickstarter project to shut down after raising $140,000. The POP Station was intended to provide charging for multiple kinds of connectors, including Lightning and the older 30-pin. For users who own newer Apple devices and legacy 30-pin devices, the POP solved the problem of constantly switching out cables.

After raising the money, the makers of POP were informed that Apple’s new licensing rules wouldn’t allow Lightning and 30-pin connectors to be packaged together. There was such an outcry from backers and the online media that Apple has since reversed its stance.

Last week we told you about Auxo, an innovative concept for the iPhone app switcher that was brought to life in the form of a jailbreak tweak. Auxo takes the bland iOS multitasking bar to the next level with live app previews, gestures, settings toggles, and more. iPhone jailbreakers on iOS 6 can now install Auxo in Cydia for $1.99.

Unlike Apple’s stock app switcher, Auxo shows you live previews of apps you have running. You can use swipe gestures to close apps or kill all running apps at once. Auxo also comes with an enhanced music player that gives you basic controls and even the ability to view album artwork. Swipe to the far left and there are toggles for various settings, like Wi-Fi and Airplane Mode. If you hate having to go into the Settings app to constantly toggle Wi-Fi or change your screen brightness, then Auxo is a breath of fresh air.

VESA is the standard for display panel mounting, and Apple’s desktop displays have supported it for years. Unfortunately, the completely redesigned and ultra thin 2012 iMac can’t be legitimately mounted, according to a comment from Apple given to MacTrast.

“The new iMac is not VESA mount compatible at this time,” an Apple representative said. “We appreciate your feedback on this feature and will take it into consideration.”

Apple’s own VESA mount adapter kit actually notes incompatibility with the 2012 iMac. The $40 adapter does work with 2009-2011 iMac models and Apple’s Cinema/Thunderbolt displays.

Source: MacTrast

Image: OSXDaily

The IMDb app is one of my favorites on the iPad, so I was pleased to see that it received a pretty big update today with a lot of new features. Version 3.0 brings a new user interface that focuses on showcasing movies and TV shows in a visually appealing way. There’s a full-featured Watchlist and recommendations that are tailored to each user.

The general experience of browsing photos and lists has been greatly improved and goes hand in hand with the revamped interface. The iPhone version of IMDb has received a little love too.

Instagram has had quite a week since legions of disgruntled users voiced complaints over the app’s shady Terms of Service (TOS) update. One clause in particular caused many users to jump to the conclusion that Instagram planned to outright sell its users’ pics without explicit permission. Instagram quickly responded to the outcry by reassuring that it has no plans to sell photos. An update to the TOS was also promised.

Today Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom published a new blog post detailing the service’s updated stance on content ownership and privacy:

One of the better Yuletide traditions is the venerable holiday Advent Calendar, in which each day of December leading up to Christmas is marked off on a special calendar by opening its corresponding door to find a small gift, toy or chocolate squirreled away inside.

This year, we here at Cult of Mac decided we wanted to give our readers their very own Apple-themed advent calendar, filled with the year’s best apps, gadgets, stories and other curios. So each day in December, we’re going to lovingly peel back the door on the Cult of Mac 2012 Advent Calendar to reveal another delicious morsel, something really special that came out this year that we think every one of you should enjoy.

Day 20 is upon us as the end of the world draws near, and today we’re recognizing a handy menubar app for the Mac called Bartender.

Back in July, Apple purchased acres and acres of land surrounding its campus in the heart of Austin, Texas. It was later reported that Apple was making a $304 million investment to grow its operations in Austin and bring an additional 3,600 jobs to the area.

Now Apple has broken ground on its 39-acre Texan campus in an effort to expand its growing U.S. Operations Center.

I’ve had a blog on Tumblr for years, and I’ve never been able to really get into using it on my iPhone until recently. A platform’s mobile presence is so important, and it’s been nice to see Tumblr work on drastically improving its mobile web and iPhone apps in recent months.

For some unfathomable reason, Tumblr has never had an official iPad app—well, until today. It just went live in the App Store.

Yesterday we told you that TIME magazine had shortlisted Tim Cook for its prestigious Person of the Year award, but U.S. President Barack Obama ended up getting selected as this year’s winner. Since Cook is the runner-up, TIME has profiled the CEO with an interview and a look at his history with Apple.

While much of the content in TIME’s profile has already been covered in Businessweek’s extensive interview and NBC Rock Center’s segment, the article does offer a nice overview of how Cook has stepped out of Steve Jobs’s shadow to become the leader of the most valuable company on earth.

Instagram recently updated its Terms of Service (TOS), and everyone freaked out at a clause that said a “business may pay Instagram to display your photos in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions without any compensation to you.” INSTAGRAM CAN SELL MY PHOTOS WITHOUT MY PERMISSION?!? Quick, everyone move to Flickr!!!

As with most news involving social network privacy, it has all been blown way out of proportion. No, Instagram does not want to sell your precious pics you take on your iPhone.

Today Apple seeded a new beta of OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.3 to developers in the Mac Dev Center. The build number is “12D43” and the release contains no known issues.

This is the third 10.8.3 beta to be released after the original was seeded back in November. It was previously discovered that OS X 10.8.3 hints at the faster AMD Radeon 7000 chip making its way to the rumored Mac Pro refresh in 2013.

Apple released OS X 10.8.2 to the public back in September with Facebook integration, Game Center, and some other new features. This third 10.8.3 beta comes out just before Apple shuts down iTunes Connect for the holidays this Friday.

We all know how the annoying experience of tapping a link to an App Store app on the iPhone. You’re immediately thrown out of whatever app you’re in and forced to view the app’s full page in the App Store. Thankfully, that cumbersome experience no longer exists for app ads in the official Facebook iOS app.

When a developer pays to show an ad for their iOS app in your Facebook feed, you’ll now be able to open and install said app without ever leaving Facebook. This is the first time we’ve seen the ability for users to download an App Store app from a pop-up window.

I’ve been a fan of Wunderlist for a long time. When it comes to task managers, it has just always been one of the best. Today it has been taken to the next level. In version 2, Wunderlist has been redesigned and rebuilt into a native application on all devices. The app is faster with more features, a web version, and a social experience that makes sharing and collaborating on lists feel smooth as butter.

6Wunderkinder, the Berlin-based company behind Wunderlist, recently canned another app called Wunderkit. The collaborative, team-focused backbone of Wunderkit has been infused into Wunderlist 2. Whether you want to get things done by yourself or with the help of others, Wunderlist 2 is an excellent task manager for all of your devices.

Apple is looking to evolve its own Maps app in iOS 6 by potentially partnering with Foursquare to provide local listings, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. Talks between Apple and Foursquare are still in the early “preliminary” stages, according to the report, but Apple is definitely interested in what Foursquare has to offer.

Yelp is already integrated into iOS 6 Maps, and Apple partners with other services to offer more than 100 million business listings. A partnership with Foursquare could help enrich Apple’s location data and even help fix inaccuracies in iOS 6 Maps.

Loren Brichter’s Game Center success story, Letterpress, has been updated today in the App Store with a couple of new features and improvements. Version 1.2 of the popular, Scrabble-like word game introduces a new HTML5-based feature called “Share Replays.” You can now share a link from the iOS game that shows a word-by-word progression of how a match progressed.

The last update to Letterpress brought the ability to quickly demand a rematch, and now you can see a history of your skills as a wordsmith with Replays. The game’s dictionary has also been tweaked and improved.

Google Maps for iPhone rocketed to the top of the App Store in just 7 hours, and today Google confirmed that the app was downloaded over 10 million times in less than 48 hours. Those are crazy numbers. People clearly wanted the triumphant return of Google Maps to iOS, but how many downloads are a result of Google’s own promoting?

Apple has released a minor Wi-Fi firmware update for “late” 2012 Macs in the Mac App Store. Mac Wi-Fi Update 1.0 address compatibility with the 5GHz Wi-Fi band, a more modern band that offers greater signal quality and less interference than the 2.4GHz band. The update is available for free and clocks in at less than 2MB.

We all know that the new Google Maps app has been a big hit on the iPhone since it launched last week. The highly anticipated app shot to the top of the App Store’s charts in a matter of hours. According to Google Senior VP of Geo and Commerce Jeff Huber, Google Maps for iPhone was downloaded a jaw-dropping 10 million times in the first 48 hours of its release.

Apple just started seeding iOS 6.1 beta 4 to developers in the iOS Dev Center. The update 98MB update is available over-the-air to devs already on the iOS 6.1 beta. There doesn’t appear to be anything big in this particular update, but let us know if you find anything new in the comments.

The iPhone 5 officially went on sale in China only a few short days ago, and tonight Apple announced that sales topped 2 million during the first three days of availability.

When Apple originally started selling the iPhone 5 back in September, the handset sold 5 million units during launch weekend in 9 nine countries, including the United States. Just like the domestic launch, this initial turnout in China shows incredible demand for the iPhone 5.

Alfred is a beloved and widely-used keyboard shortcut utility for the Mac. It can do everything from launch an app in three keystrokes to quickly eject an attached disk.

Fans will be happy hear that Alfred 2.0 is in the works, and soon a completely new version of the app will be released with loads of shiny features. Private betas will be sent out in early 2013, and the folks at Alfred have already started teasing version 2.0.