Alex Heath - page 65

There’s something about good food that inspires people to whip out their iPhones, snap a pic, apply a retro filter, and share it with the world on Instagram. Turkey Day was a massive successful for the Facebook-owned social network. Today Instagram revealed that a record-setting 10 million photos were shared yesterday, with an upwards of 200+ uploads per second. That’s insane for an app that’s only a couple of years old.

Happy Thanksgiving! This year to observe the holiday we asked each of our writers to tell us a bit about the things they are most thankful for in 2012: specifically, the Apple product, app, service, third-party accessory and person they most relied upon and were grateful for this year. All through the rest of the day, we’ll be posting these thanksgiving observances. Here’s Cult of Mac News Writer Alex Heath’s list of the things he’s most thankful for this year. You can find the rest of our Thanksgiving Smorgasbord entries here.

Popular third-party mail client Sparrow was recently bought by Google, but that hasn’t stopped the app’s developers from pushing out updates for their existing user base. Today Sparrow for iPhone received a long-awaited update that brings support for the iPhone 5’s taller display and iOS 6’s Passbook.

This very update was rejected by Apple earlier this month because of a mixup with Rich Text support in iOS 5. Sparrow has obviously ironed out the kinks with Apple, as users can download the update now in the App Store.

Earlier this morning, we told you that construction on Apple’s new, futuristic campus had been pushed back a year to 2016. Apple had originally wanted to break ground on the 176-acre piece of Cupertino property this year.

While most of the plans for the spaceship-like headquarters (referred to by Apple as “Campus 2”) have remained intact, a revised proposal was submitted to the city of Cupertino, California.

Apple has now issued an official comment on the delay of its new headquarters saying the company is approaching the build “with the same care and attention to detail we pay when designing any Apple product.”

After months of silence, big accessory makers are finally starting to rollout products for Apple’s Lightning dock connector just in time for the holidays. One such example is Griffin’s new PowerJolt SE car charger. The cord plugs into your car’s 12 volt power outlet and channels 10 watts of juice to your Lightning-equipped iOS device.

My iPhone would die if I couldn’t charge it in the car. I’ve been using a 30-pin Belkin charger with Apple’s Lightning adapter since I got my iPhone 5, but Griffin sent me the new PowerJolt SE last week.

A couple weeks ago we told you that Borderlands 2 was coming to the Mac this month. Fast forward to today, and the highly-anticipated shooter has hit OS X only two months after it debuted on the PC.

And who said Macs couldn’t be gaming consoles?

Amazon’s popular mobile app for iOS received a significant update today. Version 2.3.1 brings the ability to receive push notifications when a package has shipped and been delivered. Amazon can also send daily alerts for its “Lightning Deals.”

The app’s iPad interface has also been updated with pinch/double-tap-to-zoom for product images and descriptions.

I have always believed that if Apple designed a Photoshop competitor, it would be something like Pixelmator: clean, powerful, and intuitive. While Photoshop will set you back hundreds of dollars, Pixelmator can normally be purchased for only $30 in the Mac App Store.

Not only is price a huge factor, but Pixelmator is also updated more aggressively than Photoshop. For example, Pixelmator looks great on the new MacBook Pro’s amazing Retina display, but Adobe still hasn’t Retina-ized most of its Creative Suite.

The folks who make Pixelmator have announced a special holiday discount. For a limited time, the image editor is being sold for 50% off!

For developers, distributing promo codes can be a pain in the neck. Apple gives its third-party devs the ability to share an app with a limited number of users—a feature that is often used to give bloggers like myself early access to software before it comes out. That way we can test and get familiar with a certain app in order to provide helpful feedback and possibly write a review.

A new Mac app called Tokens offers developers a drastically improved method for generating and distributing their app promo codes.

Apple today released its second supplemental update to OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2. Supplemental Update 2.0 addresses a bug in OS X’s Keychain, the database that stores saved passwords and logins.

We received a couple tips yesterday about 2012 Macs being unable to update to 10.8.2 due to a password-related bug. It appears that today’s update resolves that issue.

“This update addresses an issue with Keychain that can affect 2012 Mac systems,” according to Apple. If you bought a new Mac this year, then grab this 27MB update now in the Mac App Store.

Source: Apple

MacLegion puts together some of the best Mac app bundles around, and this year’s holiday collection is certainly no exception. This may be one of the best bundles we’ve ever seen, in fact. The folks at MacLegion have assembled $540 worth of top-notch Mac software and bundled it together for only $50—that’s more than a 90% discount!

I bought a 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display this summer, and I’m absolutely in love with it. I firmly believe that it’s the best laptop Apple has ever made, and it has totally changed my workflow.

One of the main qualities of the Retina MacBook Pro is its portability. It’s crazy thin. I carry this laptop with me everywhere, and I knew when I bought it that I needed something to help keep it protected.

I’ve been using Mujjo’s wool MacBook sleeve nonstop for the past couple months, and I couldn’t be more pleased.

Think back to your life 10 years ago. Now think about this: if you would have invested $10,000 in Microsoft stock then, you would now have $13,000. If you would have invested the same amount into Apple, you would now be sitting on $700,000.

Really let that sink in.

Apple has posted a teaser page for its annual Black Friday sale on its Australian online store. “The one-day Apple shopping event is Friday, 23 November,” reads the graphic. “We’ll help you make the most of the day, no matter how you shop.”

If you’re a longtime Apple customer, you know that the company’s Black Friday deals are infamously weak. The biggest kind of discount you’ll typically see is $40-$60 off an iPad or $100 off a Mac. Still, it’s the only time of the year that Apple discounts anything, so the deals are worth noting. Nothing specific has leaked out yet about the deals that will be happening this Friday, but expect some modest price cuts on all of the new products Apple introduced over the past few months.

Apple’s online and actual retail store deals should be the same. Don’t expect to stop by your local Apple store in the wee hours of the morning this Friday though, because the majority of stores won’t be opening at abnormally early hours.

Apple’s online shipping estimates for the iPhone 5 are finally starting to look more reasonable. Last week, orders placed through the Apple Store wouldn’t ship for 2-3 weeks, and now Apple is saying that new orders will arrive in 2 weeks time.

The continued decrease in time it takes to ship means that Apple is finally starting to catch up with demand. We may not see a more normal 1-3ish business day shipping estimate until after the holidays, but things are looking better.

At this point, the safest thing to do is reserve an iPhone 5 for pickup at your local Apple Store. Apple still notes that “iPhone 5 is available in limited quantities” on its website.

Via: iPhoneinCanada

Loren Britcher’s hit word game Letterpress has received its first major update in the iOS App Store. The game that forced us all to actually use Game Center has been given a number of improvements and bug fixes, including the ability to request a rematch.

Last month we told you that Twelve South’s popular BookBook case would be available for the iPhone 5 sometime in November. Twelve South has now lifted the curtain on its newest case, and you can order your own online now. The first batch of orders will be sent out Monday.

And yes, the BookBook finally has a hole for the iPhone 5’s rear camera.

Back in October of 2010, iOS developer Applidium brought VideoLAN’s legendary VLC media player to the App Store. Unfortunately, the universal app had a short shelf life, as it was pulled at the request of VideoLAN a few months later. The issue revolved around VLC’s General Public License (GPL) licensing agreement. Because VLC is open source software, it was technically illegal for Applidium to sell a port in Apple’s DRM-restricted App Store.

Fast forward more than a year later, and a change in VideoLAN’s licensing means that VLC can be legally brought back to the App Store in all of its glory.

If there’s any company that gets content creation on the iOS platform, it’s Algoriddim. The Germany-based development firm is behind djay, the most intuitive and polished software of its kind on iPhone and iPad.

Music mixing isn’t Algoriddim’s only forte. Back in June, vjay for iPad was announced. The app brought live video remixing to the tablet experience, and today vjay has arrived on the iPhone. To celebrate the release, Algoriddim is also discounting all its iOS apps for a limited time in the App Store.

Facebook just rolled out a big update to its iOS app in the App Store. Most notably, version 5.2 of Facebook’s app brings the long-awaited “Share” button.

Like Twitter’s ability to retweet, Facebook is now letting users quickly share links and posts on their timeline. You’ve been able to do this on the desktop and Facebook’s mobile website, but now the sharing functionality is integrated in the native Facebook iOS experience.

Today’s update brings a number of other additions, including emoticons in messages and the ability to tag your friends in status updates and comments.

Google is putting the finishing touches on its standalone Maps app for iOS, according to a new report today from The Wall Street Journal. A beta version of the app has reportedly been distributed to select testers within and outside Google as the search giant gets ready to submit the final version to Apple’s App Store.

Since Apple introduced its own Maps app in iOS 6, there has been much speculation surrounding Google’s plans for its own mapping service on the iPhone. Unless Apple says no, Google Maps should be arriving in the App Store soon.

Apple has been trying to get some sort of new TV product off the ground for quite some time. We’ve seen prototypes of an actual Apple iTV, and there’s also been speculation that Apple will introduce a TV set-top box that streams live broadcasts over the internet.

While licensing agreements still need to be reached with Hollywood studios and cable companies, Apple’s mythical TV device is gearing up for an “imminent” launch, according to a new report.

Apple’s Phil Schiller unveiled the ultra-slim, all-new iMac at a press event last month. The 21.5-inch model was said to ship sometime in November, with the 27-inch model arriving later in December. Due to manufacturing complexities and supply issues overseas, Tim Cook later said that the new iMac will be “constrained in a significant way” this holiday season.

Now a new rumor is saying that supply chain problems mean no new iMacs at all until 2013.

I’ve never really been able to get behind the whole augmented reality thing. I tried it with the Yelp iPhone app once while I was on vacation in a large city, but it hasn’t really changed my life in any way. If there’s any platform I can see augmented reality really taking off, it’s on smartphones.

The developers at Crossfader have released something really cool: an augmented reality layer for Maps on the iPhone. Both Apple and Google Maps are supported, and the app itself is totally free.

There are two fighters left in the battle for market share dominance in the mobile space: Apple and Google. Android powers Samsung’s flagship handsets, and the Korean company continues to crush Apple in terms of sheer volume of units sold. Without Android, Samsung wouldn’t be near as successful.

But Apple is showing incredible growth, especially in emerging markets like China and Brazil. Smartphone sales are cannibalizing ‘dumb phones’ rapidly, and Apple is leading the smartphone pack with Samsung and Android.