Alex Heath - page 72

Apple just lifted the curtain on the iPhone 5, it’s most groundbreaking iPhone yet. The device features a 4-inch Retina display with 1136 x 640 screen resolution and 16:9 aspect ratio. To show off the new display, Apple’s Phil Schiller demonstrated what widescreen iOS apps look like on the device.

Not only will the iOS Home screen feature 5 rows of icons instead of the traditional 4, but all of Apple’s own apps will be updated to make use of the iPhone 5’s new screen real estate. Games and other kinds of apps also look great on the display, and the aspect ratio allows for truer widescreen video.

Apple CEO Tim Cook took the stage at today’s iPhone event and opened with an update on the company’s retail presence. Cook started by showing off Apple’s new Barcelona store and playing a video of the store’s launch.

Apple now has 380 retail stores in 12 countries. The company’s first Swedish store will open on Friday, September 14th. 83 million visitors walked through Apple’s retail stores last year, making the Cupertino company one of the most successful consumer electronics retail chains in history. “Apple stores offer the best buying experience and customer service on the planet,” exclaimed Cook.

While Apple retail is definitely a force to be reckoned with, the company’s digital downloads are also setting the industry standard. Apple customers have downloaded 7 million copies of Mountain Lion since its launch in July, according to Cook. That figure makes Mountain Lion the fastest selling OS X release in history.

Image: The Verge

With less than 30 minutes left before Apple takes the stage to unveil the iPhone 5, pictures of what is allegedly the final iPhone 5 design have leaked. French site Nowhereelse.fr has been leaking next-gen iPhone parts systemtically for months, and today the site has what it claims to be a finished iPhone 5 body.

Apple’s beloved digital assistant is up to no good again. Nick Bilton of The New York Times tweeted a fun screenshot just moments ago. When asked about the iPhone 5, Siri redirects to Apple’s “fabulous website” for more information. As we already told you, Apple’s online search engine leaked the iPhone 5 earlier today.

Less than an hour until the keynote starts!

Source: @nickbilton

Apple is going to unveil the iPhone 5 with LTE, the new iPod touch, new iPod nano, and a new version of iTunes today. How do we know, you ask? Because Apple’s own search engine just leaked all of it.

Apple will unveil the iPhone 5 on September 12th. Pre-orders are expected to begin the same day. Industry experts agree that this year’s model is the most anticipated iPhone release yet, and Apple is expected to enjoy record sales this holiday season. You’re probably itching to see what Apple has up its sleeve this time, especially if you’re coming off a two-year carrier contract with the iPhone 4.

The iPhone 4S was announced on October 4th, 2011. Despite all of its new features and improvements, the 4S didn’t really fulfill all of the “iPhone 5” rumors that predicted a totally new form factor, larger display, 4G, etc. For that reason, the 4S triggered some disappointment among Apple fans.

Now it’s 2012 and Apple is expected to finally unveil the redesigned iPhone 5 we’ve all been waiting for. In Cult of Mac’s rumor roundup, we examine everything we think we know about the iPhone 5.

On the eve of its big iPhone 5 event, Apple has seeded a new version of OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 to registered developers in the Mac Dev Center. This marks the fourth beta update of 10.8.2 to be released in less than a month, indicating that a public release is imminent.

Unlike the last couple minor version of the 10.8.2 beta, today’s 12C50 update packs several new additions and improvements. Namely, Facebook integration has been fully baked into OS X itself, meaning that everyone should have access to Facebook in Mountain Lion when 10.8.2 drops.

If this signage is to be believed, French carrier SFR will be offering the iPhone 5 come September 21st. While it’s expected that the next iPhone will go on sale in the U.S. on the 21st, international availability details have remained scarce.

The display is about a SFR contest to win a free iPhone 5 on the network once its available. The picture of the actual device is probably a mockup based on rumors, but this shows that SFR is getting ads together before Apple’s announcement.

Source: Mac4Ever

Great news for fans of the popular tower defense game Fieldrunners. Subatomic Studios has announced the highly-anticpated release of Fieldrunners 2 HD for iPad!

The fully-optimized iPad version of the critically acclaimed sequel will launch in the App Store this Thursday, September 13th. Not only will the game look great on the iPad’s Retina display, but new weapons and surprises are included to keep you on your toes.

Former Siri CEO Dag Kittlaus left Apple last year, and now the revolutionary platform’s other co-founder has reportedly left Apple as well. According to Bloomberg, Siri co-founder Adam Cheyer recently left Apple for unknown reasons.

Apple bought Siri back in April of 2010 for a rumored $200 million, and Siri has since become a staple feature of the iPhone 4S and iPad. Given the imminent public release of the new and improved Siri in iOS 6, Cheyer’s departure is interestingly timed.

You might have heard that Apple is set to unveil a new iPhone tomorrow. Wall Street certainly has, and analysts have been predicting how many units Apple will sell out of the gate. Anticipation for the iPhone 5 is ridiculously high, and Apple is expected to shatter the records it set with the 4S last year.

While estimates vary, the general consensus is that Apple will sell between 8-10 million iPhone 5s in September, which would be huge for Apple’s last fiscal 2012 quarter.

FireCore today released aTV Flash (black) 2.0, the highly-anticipated update to its flagship software for the jailbroken Apple TV. Version 2.0 brings a number of enhancements, including a Library View for browsing media content by category (TV, movie, etc.), integrated search, and trakt.tv support for keeping content wirelessly synced between multiple Apple TVs.

Sadly, aTV Flash (black) still doesn’t support the third-gen Apple TV, as a jailbreak for Apple’s latest set-top box has not yet been released. But second-gen Apple TV owners can grab today’s 2.0 update now.

Renowned and long-time Apple executive Jony Ive has purchased a $17 million home on San Francisco’s exclusive “Gold Coast.” The 45-year-old designer behind products like the iMac, iPhone, and iPad is now the owner of a 7,274-square-foot abode overlooking the bay area.

Given Ive’s British heritage, it’s only fitting that his new house features its own courtyard garden and “cathedral” ceilings. Not too shabby, even for a man that’s been knighted by the Queen of England.

You gotta give it to Rush Limbaugh; at least he’s candid. During his radio show today, he decided to talk about Apple’s upcoming iPhone 5. According to emails from his listeners, people are “depressed about the new iPhone.” Why? Because we already know everything about it! The 4-inch screen, LTE, slimmer design — it’s all just meh.

Apple still has a lot of growing to do in Russia, but the good news is that the iTunes Store may finally be launching there in the coming months. The iTunes Store has not made its way to Russia after all these years mainly due to the country’s pervasive culture of copyright infringement. As part of the company’s continued rollout to new international markets, Apple is reportedly in talks with the Russian music industry to allow iTunes digital downloads. Not only that, but the price of a song on the Russian iTunes Store may be less than the traditional $0.99/track rate found in the U.S.

Multiple airlines have already announced plans to support Apple’s digital wallet service called Passbook, and now more companies are jumping on the bandwagon. Accessco, a leading provider for attraction ticketing, will start rolling out support for the Passbook iOS 6 app in the coming weeks. This means that Cedar Fair Entertainment U.S. theme parks (Cedar Point, Kings Island, etc.) and attractions like the Columbus Zoo will work with Passbook on the iPhone.

Do you wish that Spotify had a free web version like Pandora? Your wish may soon be granted.

According to multiple reports, popular music streaming service Spotify is gearing up to unleash a full web app for paid and free customers.

Remember the giant ‘Retina’ in Apple’s huge event banner for the third-gen iPad? If you thought that was a subtle hint, then get ready, cause it’s even better this time around. We showed you the colorful signage Apple put up at the Yerba Buena Center over the weekend, and it sadly looked like there were no immediate iPhone 5 hints in the banner’s design. Think again.

Believe it or not, the banner currently hanging from Yerba Buena in San Francisco points to the rumored 4-inch display for the iPhone 5.

We already know that the iPhone 5 will support faster 4G LTE networking, but details surrounding international availability have remained scarce. While it’s assumed that the iPhone 5 will support LTE speeds on U.S. carriers like AT&T and Verizon, accessing LTE on carriers in other continents is a whole other issue.

According to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, the next iPhone will indeed support LTE on certain networks in Europe and Asia:

On Friday Apple started preparing the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, California for the long-awaited iPhone 5 event that will be taking place this Wednesday. Journalists will pile into the venue to watch Tim Cook and company unveil the next iPhone and other surprises. Per tradition, Apple has begun putting up larger banners outside of Yerba Buena the weekend before the event.

We stopped by Yerba Buena to get a look at the signage Apple is putting up. Check out more on-location shots from Yerba Buena in our gallery below.

Let’s face it: we Apple fanatics have a certain stereotype. We all love our Apple devices, and it shows. Sometimes too much.

If there has ever been a video parody perfectly suited for the Cult of Mac, it’s this one. Behold part 1 and 2 of “Sh*#t Apple Fanatics Say:”

If you’ve been itching for an unlock on your iPhone, then you may be able to score a free factory unlock from AT&T. The way it typically works is that a U.S. carrier will unlock an iPhone after its two-year contract is up, but it looks like AT&T is offering unlocks for free to certain on-contract iPhones.

Requesting an unlock through AT&T’s web form has produced good results for multiple iPhone owners. If you’d like an unlock to use your iPhone on any GSM carrier worldwide, then it’s worth a shot.

Twitter for Mac’s future isn’t looking very bright. The app hasn’t received an update in over a year, and it doesn’t look like Twitter will be updating it ever again.

Word on the street is that Twitter has an update technically in its pipeline, but the social network probably won’t pull the trigger. Twitter for Mac has basically been sent to its grave.

Apple has been working on beefing up its iTunes experience for quite some time, and now it looks like the Cupertino company is looking to create a Pandora-like internet radio service. Users would be able to create stations for favorite artists or songs, and Apple would presumably use its Genius algorithm to stream related music. The service would be free and available on all Apple devices, but iAds would be interspersed throughout as a means of monetization.

Apple will be holding its highly anticipated iPhone 5 event this coming Wednesday, and the new iPhone is expected to go one sale Friday, September 21st. According to a new rumor, Apple will finally drop the iPhone 3GS and make the iPhone 4 its cheaper, entry-level model.

The 3GS was introduced back in 2009, and the phone is still offered 3 years later for free with a two-year carrier contract. With the introduction of iOS 6, the 3GS will be so outdated that it only makes sense for Apple to give it the boot.