Buster Hein - page 218

 SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD/iWORLD 2013 – Steve Jobs isn’t here at Macworld to kick off the show with one of his famous Stevenotes. But we got the next best thing – an shoddy actor who played Steve Jobs in a movie.

Ashton just opened Macworld with a Kutchernote, and unfortunately he didn’t come out in his full Steve garb, but he did give us some insight into what it was like to play Steve Jobs as well as his “geek credentials,” but more importantly, he said that Steve Jobs is his idol and that he tries to emulate him when he’s doing his angel investments.

SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD/iWORLD 2013 – Maintaining a Mac is a lot easier than a PC but it still requires some work. After a few years of use, your hard drive space starts to shrink and finding the right files to delete isn’t always obvious.

MacPaw is releasing a new app to help people free up more space on their Macs. It’s called CleanMyMac 2 and it will dive deep into your harddrive to clean out all the crap you don’t need.

SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD/iWORLD 2013 – Some people are really serious about the work they get done on their iPad. Take our Reviews Editor, Charlie Sorrel, for example. Dude, takes his iPad everywhere with him on his crosscountry bike rides to bang out his awesome posts.

The problem with doing serious work with the iPad is that it’s a fairly delicate device. You drop it once and your entire iPad world can be shattered. There are a few cases that can handle a few blows, but the iKey StreetCase is ready to go to war for you.

 SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD/iWORLD 2013 – I don’t believe in covering my gorgeous iPhone with a case. I want it to be naked. Free. Yes, it might gather some battle scars in the process, but I think those give it character. I also don’t use a case because I just don’t want any extra bulk in my pocket, and most cases add a half inch of thickness to my svelte iPhone 5.

TwelveSouth has heard the complaints of iPhone users like me who hate using cases. They know that some of us don’t want to hide the iPhone’s beautiful design. They know I just want to be able to slip it in and out of my pocket with ease. But they also know I worry that my screen is going to get scratched or shatter, and they think they have the perfect solution.

 SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD/iWORLD 2013 – The doors of Macworld/iWorld  open up tomorrow morning, but we’ve already taken a quick tour of the Moscone center to get an early look at the action.

Exhibitors are rushing around trying to put the finishing touches on their booth, but it looks like some of them will be burning the midnight oil as a lot of booths still need a ton of work. We’ll be back tomorrow morning to cover all the cool new products and TechTalks, but for now, here’s what it looks like behind the scenes of Macworld/iWorld 2013.

Apple’s been surprising us left and right this week with iOS 6.1 dropping out of nowhere, and the a 128GB iPad announced today. There might be an Apple TV surprise coming in the near future too.

According to some FCC documents, Apple might release a smaller Apple TV pretty soon. The papers show an Apple TV with the same design and shape as the current generation except it’s nearly a half centimeter smaller.

Apple is famous for its attention to detail and making the smallest tweaks to hardware and software most people wouldn’t even notice. It’s kind of silly to get excited about tiny animation details in iOS, but to us, they’re a sign that Apple really cares about its products.

Along with the new lockscreen music controls for iOS 6.1, Apple added some new light reflection details on the lockscreen as well.  Now, instead of the music player bar being a flat surface, there is a small amount of light reflecting between the Pause button and Volume slider that moves as you tilt your device. Apple added a similar light feature to the volume slider knobs in iOS 6.0, so and it looks like it’s slowly creeping its way through the rest of iOS.

Here’s a video of the tiny feature in action:

People don’t trust Apple with all their personal data as much as they used to. That’s what the latest survey on privacy data claims, after ranking the top 20 companies that U.S. consumers trust the most with their private information.

Ponemon Institute has conducted its annual privacy survey for the past seven years that asks U.S. consumers to rate organizations that they feel are most likely going to keep their information private. Apple was ranked 14th on last years list, but didn’t make the cut this time.

Macworld/iWorld 2013 is coming in just two days, and Cult of Mac will be there, reporting live from the showfloor.

Macworld has an amazing history of being the launching pad for some world changing products.  The iPhone debuted at Macworld. So did the MacBook Air. And iTunes. Again and again, products announced at Macworld have shifted the very pillars of technology.

Macworld is more than just a celebration on everything that is wonderful about iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apps, and the people who use them. It’s a summit that measures the very pulse of Cupertino’s incredible impact upon the world around us. With Apple at the top of it’s game, it’s more important than ever.

Not convinced? Here’s a ten minute history of the last 15 years of Macworld.

Many people thought that without Apple’s injecting blood directly into the arteries of Macworld, the expo would quickly shrivel and die.

They were wrong. Apple may not have participated in the event since 2009 but things are still going strong. Macworld has transformed itself from an Apple launch event where Cupertino  announced products like the original iPhone and taught customers how to use them, to an event where people celebrate the culture that permeates Apple fans and binds them together.

In three short days, thousands of iFans across the globe will converge on San Francisco’s Moscone Center to celebrate everything that is great about Apple. It’s going to be a great show. Already, Macworld/iWorld 2013 is set to be one of the most entertaining Macworld conferences in recent memories. It’s going to be packed with celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and Will.i.am, while over 350 companies show off their new products to Apple fans who will love getting to hangout with each other and swap stories on everything Apple.

Here’s what to look forward to this week at MacWorld/iWorld 2013:

iPhones and iPads aren’t the only products receiving some love from Apple today. Along with the surprise release of iOS 6.1, Apple just pushed out an update for the Apple TV as well.

The new Apple TV software version 5.2 can be downloaded right now. It includes a number of new features such as support for Bluetooth keyboards, iTunes’ Up Next feature, and iTunes in the Cloud.

You should never steal an iPhone while wearing pink shoes. It doesn’t sound like a piece of vital information, but in the hard streets of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park it is, because those pink little things are going to get you caught.

One thief learned that lesson the hard way, after he stole an iPhone from a girl, and then the iPhone he stole was stolen, and then both of them got busted. It’s a crazy story, but it goes something like this:

Even though many people idolize Steve Jobs and the role he played in the tech industry, his dietary habits are not for the faint of heart.

While preparing to play Steve Jobs in his new movie JOBS, Ashton Kutcher decided he should try to walk, talk and even eat like Steve Jobs to fully embrace the role. It sounds like a good idea, except following Steve Jobs’ diet gave Kutcher’s pancreas all sorts of problems and he wound up in the hospital two days before the movie started.

We’ve been waiting a long time for an iOS 6 jailbreak to be released, and hopefully we won’t have to wait much longer. The iOS 6.1 jailbreak sounds like it’s going to be awesome because almost everyone will be able to use it, and it will be an untethered jailbreak which is always nice.

Making things even better, Evad3rs, the team behind the upcoming jailbreak, let it be known today that the upcoming iOS 6.1 untethered jailbreak will work on every device that can run iOS 6.1. That’s a whopping 22 devices in total, and maybe even 23 if the Apple TV 2 update is out in time.

We rarely think of frequency spectrums to be a finite resources, but some of the wireless carriers in the U.S. are already bumping into their limits. Spectrum issues can lead to a network slowdown, like the one we saw last summer, and the only way to get more is to buy it.

To beef up their network, AT&T announced today that they have agreed to acquire spectrum in the 700 MHz band from Verizon Wireless. The deal covers 18 states and will cost AT&T $1.9 billion in cash.

Siri has enjoyed mild success since her debut on the iPhone 4S. She’s not the world’s greatest personal assistant, but she gets the job done most of the time, which is better than a lot of other voice recognition options out there.

Now Amazon is preparing to do battle with Siri thanks to a new digital assistant they just bought. Her name’s IVONA, and we’re pretty sure it’s not the same Ivona from Austin Powers.

Even though Apple has tried to slowly wean itself from being dependent on Google Maps, YouTube, Search and other fun stuff, Google has managed to become one of the top developers for iOS.

In 2012, five of the six most-used apps in the U.S. were made by Google. Facebook just barely beat out Google Maps for the number one spot.

Before his death in 2011, Steve Jobs was the biggest shareholder of Disney stock thanks to the fact that Disney acquired his company, Pixar, in 2006. But before Disney and Pixar merged together, things weren’t always so rosy between Steve and Disney.

Steve Jobs and Disney CEO Bob Iger eventually had a great relationship, but in the early days, Steve Jobs wasn’t afraid to release an atomic bomb of cruelty on Disney. He would even call Bob Iger on Saturdays just tell him that his films sucked.

The first video clip of Ashton Kutcher’s Steve Jobs movie just hit the Internet this morning. We were actually impressed with Kutcher in the preview, which isn’t saying much, but still.

This movie could be slightly better than we are expecting it to be, except according to Steve Wozniak himself, that scene in the preview never actually happened.

Apple just posted one of their most successful financial quarters ever. A bunch of records were broken for iPad sales, iPhone sales, net revenue, and net profit.

Sorting through the pile of information and numbers Tim Cook and Peter Oppenheimer just gave us can make your head spin, so we’ve broken it down for you. Here are the most important numbers you need to know from today’s earnings call:

Apple Maps has been the butt of an exhausting number of bad jokes. People in Australia have been stranded in the outback thanks to Scott Forstall’s mishap.

For most of us, glitches in Apple Maps are just a minor inconvenience and you can just switch over to Google Maps when you have a problem. But for one restaurant in Portland, Oregon, Apple Maps has cost them about $50,000 worth of business since it was released in September.

Samsung’s got a flagship smartphone coming down their pipeline. It’ll probably be called the Galaxy S IV. It will probably be launched in April. It will have all kinds of great and ridiculous features that I’m sure Android fans will love. But it will also have a screen that knocks the socks off Apple’s Retina display.

There have been rumors for a while now that Samsung wants to add a display to the Galaxy S IV that’s much more pixel dense than the iPhone’s Retina display. According to the latest reports, the Galaxy S IV’s display will have a pixel density of 440ppi, which sounds like overkill, but it’s actually something Apple needs to consider adding, too.

In just the last fifteen years, a lot has changed for Apple. The company has transformed itself from a dying corporation teetering on the brink of bankruptcy into the most powerful technology company in the world, a giant that has revolutionized pretty much every aspect of technology.

Given the extraordinary changes that have happened to Apple in the last fifteen years, you’d think that the Apple.com homepage would have gone through a lot of changes too. But it hasn’t. Why not?

Going back through fifteen years of Apple.com homepages, it is clear that for Apple, their website is just another product, just like an iPhone or iPod. When Apple wants to make a new product, they first find the ideal form they think that object should be, and then endlessly iterate upon it over successive generations to bring the function of that form into sharper relief.

Apple’s website is no different. Here’s how Apple has refined it over the years.

One of the best things about owning an Apple TV is the ability to share everything on your Mac’s screen with the flatscreen in your living room. It works perfectly. If there’s video on the Internet that you can’t find on one of the Apple TV apps, you don’t have to worry about it; you just screen share and enjoy.

Google and Netflix are tired of Apple having all the fun with wireless video streaming between devices, so they’ve brewed up their own solution to compete with AirPlay. The new protocol is called DIAL, and like Android, it’s free and already has some big companies backing it.

You just got a new laptop with Windows 8 pre-installed. The new UI is beautiful, but you’re confused. Everything’s weird. You can’t find any of your files and apps. Things don’t work the way they have for the past 20 years. It’s a nightmare and you just want the old Windows back.

Don’t worry, there are Microsoft Certified Professionals out there who will help you out. And by help you out, I mean they will charge you $125 to downgrade your PC to Windows 7 so you don’t have to have Microsoft’s latest and greatest operating system. This can’t be a good sign for Microsoft.

Source: Michael Jurewitz