Alex Heath - page 87

With each new day we’re getting closer and closer to a new jailbreak release, but things are still not quite ready. Good news is that infamous Chronic Dev hacker pod2g has successfully jailbroken his third-gen iPad on iOS 5.1. The news follows the previous announcement that he had gotten an untethered jailbreak fully functional on his iPhone 4 running iOS 5.1.

Pod2g still has to work on stabilizing his jailbreak and packaging it for public distribution, but his exploits will work on all iOS devices, including the iPhone 4S.

Rumors saying Apple is planning a smaller version of the iPad won’t die, and a new report sheds more light on the rumored product. Fueling past rumors that Apple is interested in creating a 7-inch iPad at a cheaper price point, iMore claims that the company is planning a 7-inch iPad for release this October alongside the next-gen iPhone.

But that’s not all! The most interesting claim is that the upcoming 7-inch iPad will be priced between $200-$250. Also, the tablet will feature a Retina display like the third-gen iPad, keeping the same 2048×1536 resolution, according to the report.

The Mac has had a vibrant, growing community of developers for many years, and Apple has continued to encourage third-party developer participation with the Mac App Store. Launched in January of 2011, the Mac App Store already boasts 10,000 apps. It’s easier then ever for developers to get their apps in front of millions of OS X users. But what if you don’t want to play by Apple’s rules? Or what you if you want your app to be seen by as many eyes as possible? Then you start to look outside the Mac App Store.

While Apple’s is great in its own ways, other storefronts are offering different —and in many ways better — experiences for app distribution and discovery. In fact, there’s a certain Mac app out there that’s been doing it well for a long time.

We absolutely adore a good wallpaper here at Cult of Mac, so we’re thrilled to share 2048px.com with you, the first website solely dedicated to offering beautiful wallpapers for the new iPad’s gorgeous Retina display.

When Apple introduced Notification Center in iOS 5 last summer, jailbreak developers immediately started creating third-party widgets to enhance certain functionalities and create shortcuts for iOS. Widgets for toggling system preferences, for instance, are now available in Cydia for Notification Center. What would happen if the idea of widgets left Notification Center and made its way to the iOS Home screen?

Prolific Cydia developer Ori Kadosh has released Dashboard X, an ambitious extension for adding floating widgets to your jailbroken iPhone and iPad’s springboard.

Today Apple released Safari 5.1.7 alongside OS X 10.7.4. The latest Safari update includes several general improvements and bug fixes, including a new way of handling Adobe Flash on the web. If an older version of Flash attempts to run in Safari 5.1.7, Apple’s browser will automatically disable it and give you the option to install the newest version of Flash from Adobe’s website.

Have you been eyeing on a brand new Caddy? Do you like Apple products? Then you will be pleased to know that Cadillac will giving each buyer of its 2013 XTS a new iPad.

Announced at the CTIA conference this year, iPads will be loaded up with car manuals and apps to then be given to 2013 XTS owners. The initiative is supposed to teach car owners about CUE, the dashboard system that comes with a new Caddy.

Following Facebook’s $1 billion acquisition of Instagram, news and rumors surrounding the photography app have continued to swirl.

What would happen if Instagram sold a standalone camera to take and share pictures? While such a thing will obviously never happen, the idea was interesting enough to inspire “Socialmatic,” a physical camera concept for Instagram.

Apple will be rolling out its newest iPad to 30 more countries, including Brazil, this weekend. 23 countries will start selling the third-generation iPad Friday, May 11th, and 7 more countries will be added Saturday, May 12th.

After this rollout, the new iPad will be available in 90 countries around the world. Interestingly, Apple’s latest iPad is still not officially available in China.

As it has said many times before, T-Mobile is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the iPhone on its network. The carrier has been largely unable to attract unlocked iPhone owners due to the fact that frequency incompatibilities make it impossible to use 3G data speeds on T-Mobile’s 1700 MHz AWS band. T-Mobile started transitioning part of its spectrum over to the iPhone-friendly 1900 MHz band last year, and scattered reports have said that a small number of iPhone users can now use 3G speeds in certain areas of the United States.

Not only is T-Mobile saying that its 3G network will be ready for the iPhone by Q4 of this year, but it also plans to offer HSPA+ 4G speeds on an iPhone-friendly frequency.

Update: Looks like Padbury has taken the screensaver off his Dribble account. If anyone has a mirrored link for others to download, please post in the comments.

We love beautiful wallpapers and screensavers here at Cult of Mac. When Apple User Interface Designer Robert Padbury posted a beautiful screensaver to his Dribble account, we fell in love. The “Minimalist Clock Screensaver” comes in 12-hour and 24-hour versions, and you can grab it now for free to install on your own Mac.

The Touchtype is a new Kickstarter project that aims to be the ultimate case for iPad typists. Like the Incase Origami Workstation, the Touchtype conveniently holds an Apple wireless keyboard and iPad inside a thin design.

Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard can be stored underneath the iPad, and the case itself props up any iPad model to let you type. With support for all of Apple’s tablets and a sleek, utilitarian design, the Touchtype looks like an awesome accessory for those who still want to use a physical keyboard with the iPad.

Apple’s iPhone is about to be implemented into the American railroad system in a big way. Amtrak, the government agency that oversees the nation’s train services, will be adopting the iPhone as a digital ticket scanner. The 1,700 conductors who currently work for Amtrak have been undergoing training with the iPhone since November, and the new initiative will be fully rolled out by late summer.

Good news for potential iPad buyers: Apple has slashed $20-$50 off refurbished first and second generation iPads in its online store. The original iPad and iPad 2 models are now being offered at significant price reductions in different color and storage variants.

When Daniel Chase Hooper posted the concept for his simple text editing technique on the iPad, he most likely had no clue it would snowball into something so huge. After nearly every tech site on the internet posted the concept, a jailbreak tweak was made available a couple days later. Jailbroken iPad owners can use the editing techniques Hooper outlined right now (yes, they’re that good), and we’re hoping that Apple will add the functionality in a future version of iOS.

Now Hooper’s concept is making its way to the App Store in the form of an upcoming iPad app called SlideWriter.

Apple released iOS 5.1.1 for iOS device owners today over-the-air and in iTunes. The update brings several bug fixes and improvements, including a fix for certain iPads that loose connectivity when switching between 2G and 3G networks.

An important security update has also been included in iOS 5.1.1 for a URL spoofing technique in Safari that made the news a couple weeks ago.

Apple sold all of the seats to its Worldwide Developer Conference this year in a matter of only two hours, and the conference sold out before most of the west coast had even crawled out of bed. If you didn’t signup fast enough, you didn’t get a pass to the hottest developer gathering in town.

WWDC demand has spawned several alternatives, including Indie Developer Lab in San Francisco. Many developers were unable to attend WWDC due to how fast the event sold out, and Apple has killed the ability to resell tickets this year.

Mobile game maker CocoaChina has put together a site that aims to get Apple’s attention regarding the pent-up-demand for WWDC 2012.

Continuing the company’s efforts to transition existing MobileMe users away from the now-defunct service to iCloud, Apple has extended the deadline for customers to take advantage of free iCloud storage amounting to 20GB. MobileMe users with 20GB or more of files have had access to 20GB of free iCloud storage for months, with the extra storage space set to expire in June of 2012. After the deadline, users transitioning away from MobileMe have the option to purchase the 20GB iCloud plan for $20 per year or default to the free 5GB plan.

In an update to its FAQ page, Apple has quietly extended the free storage deadline from June to September of 2012.

Apple has released iOS 5.1.1 for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users in iTunes. The update is rolling out right now, so keep checking for updates if 5.1.1 doesn’t show up immediately.

While 5.1.1 is a relatively minor update, it does address multiple bugs, including a problem on the iPad while switching between 2G and 3G networks. Apple also addresses bugs concerning AirPlay, Safari, HDR in the Camera app, and more.

Many have been wondering what Apple will call the next-generation iPhone. iPhone 5? iPhone 6? iPhone 4G Epic Touch? Or what about “the new iPhone?” After the third-gen iPad, it looks like Apple may be starting to abandon its traditional naming conventions for iOS devices altogether.

Interestingly, Apple has filed a claim with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to gain control of the iPhone5.com domain name.

An innovate idea for iOS often gets introduced to high praises from the Apple community, and one of three things usually happens: 1.) Apple implements the idea, 2.) Jailbreakers implement it first and Apple eventually does the same, 3.) Apple ignores the idea entirely and jailbreakers enjoy it exclusively. We’re hoping that number 2.) will happen in this case.

Remember when we showed you the amazing concept video for easily editing text on the iPad? Put together by Daniel Chase Hooper, the concept showed how you could edit text with finger drags and gestures instead of the tedious ‘tap and drag’ method Apple currently implements. Many of us said we wanted to see Hooper’s concept in iOS 6.

As it is known to do, the jailbreak community has already heard our collective cry and answered with a new jailbreak tweak that just went live in Cydia today. Dubbed SwipeSelection, a new way of editing text is now available for jailbroken iPad and iPhone users.

Facebook has updated its Facebook Messenger app in the App Store with several new features. You can now see when someone is replying to a message with a live typing indicator, much like iMessage in iOS. Read receipts will also reveal when a message has been read and by whom in a group message. Location information has also been added for showing where someone was when they sent a message from their Apple or Android smartphone.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson made some interesting comments relating to Apple and the iPhone at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference earlier this week. In particular, Stephenson remarked that he wished his company would have never offered unlimited data for iPhone customers, citing the capital AT&T had to invest up front to strengthen its network.

Stephenson also said that he loses sleep over iMessage, because Apple’s messaging service cuts directly into AT&T’s SMS/MMS revenue.

Following a limited theatrical release back in November of last year, Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview will be returning to Landmark theaters next week, starting on May 11th. Magnolia Pictures will be distributing the 70-minute “lost” interview with Jobs for a limited run in 19 cities. Footage from the interview with Jobs in 1995 was recently discovered and remastered for public distribution.

Jailbreakers will rejoice to hear that third-party warranty provider SquareTrade has expanded its coverage to include jailbroken Apple iPhones. Unlike Apple’s own AppleCare+ program and standard warranty, SquareTrade will give you customer support and even replace your iPhone whether it’s jailbroken or not. This is the first time a warranty has been offered that specifically covers jailbroken iOS devices, although it’s currently unclear if jailbroken iPads and iPod touches are included.