Buster Hein - page 230

When two of the biggest companies in tech are hardcore frememies, it’s nearly impossible to find the middle ground to reconcile. Samsung and Apple are trying to break things off entirely, even though they need each other.

In the latest news on their breakup, Samsung has said that they will end their LCD panel supply relationship with Apple as of next year. The stated reason behind Samsung breaking ties with Apple is that Apple’s supply pricing strategy provides Samsung with insufficient margins.

One of the biggest annoyances of using Instagram is when I have a friend who also uses Twitter and I want to mention them in a photo that I’m about to post to Twitter, except their Instagram and Twitter usernames are completely different.

It’s not a huge inconvenience, but it’d just be easier if everything was the same. Instagram says they just solved that problem and now Instagram names will magically be translated to their proper Twitter handle when posted on Twitter.

Most people will download almost any iOS game, no matter how silly it looks, as long as it’s free. They just won’t stick around for more than one day. A new study on user engagement in free-to-play social games discovered that 85% of new players in the U.S. never go back to the game after the first day.

There are reasons why you should always understand how technology works before taking scandalous pictures of yourself and sending them to your lover. You don’t know where those pictures are going to end up. You might snap a naughty picture with your iPhone that then gets sent to your iCloud Photostream that is then synced with your school’s iPad. Then your students might be playing around on that school iPad, find the pic of you lookin’ saucy, and then all hell breaks loose.

That’s exactly what happened to one middle school teacher. The weird twist to the story is that the teacher didn’t get fired or suspended for having nearly pornographic photos of herself on a school device. The students that found it go suspended instead.

No one uses iTunes anymore. iTunes is like that one cool guy from high school who used to be a lot of fun to hang out with, but then everyone grew up and he’s still out there prowling the streets of your hometown, getting drunk, attending local football games and hanging out with high school kids. He just failed to grow up like everyone else, and that’s kind of what’s happened to iTunes. It’s antiquated and bloated. People dread using it and even though iTunes 11 is supposed to drop this month, we don’t think that’s going to change much.

What can Apple do to fix iTunes? Is there even a way to do it?  It’s an ugly and slow app but it’s still important, so it’s not like Apple can just nuke it altogether and start over. Should Apple divy up the functionality of iTunes to other OS X apps the same way they do with iOS? We haven’t played with iTunes 11, but the demo at last month’s keynote didn’t make us too hopeful. We’d love to hear your thoughts on what Apple should do to fix iTunes.

Click here to go to the Cult of Mac Forum and tell us what you would do to make iTunes useable again.

White gadgets became an iconic symbol under the careful craftsmanship of Apple. When Apple released the original iPod 11 years ago in classic Apple white, everybody wanted one, and eventually every gadget manufacturer in the world tried to copy that style.

Over the last few years though, black iDevices have started to gain in popularity over their white brethren. Black is classy, professional, and always down for a good time, whereas white is starting to come off as fun but a bit more feminine. Some people think white is making a comeback, but a new study  suggests that nearly 70% of Apple owners prefer black over white now, and there’s no turning back.

Google just announced their newest Chromebook. It runs Google’s Chrome OS. It has an 11.6-inch screen with 1366 x 768 resolution, 6 hours of battery life, a 100 GB flash storage drive and it only costs $249. It’s beautiful. It looks just like the 11-inch MacBook Air. And of course, it’s made by Samsung.

Image: Matt Buchanan

A flurry of rumors have surrounded the failed video app start-up Color over the past 24 hours. First a rumors hit that Color was going to completely shutdown after failing to gain widespread use after a year. A few hours later a second rumor claimed that Color wasn’t shutting down, they were just being bought by Apple.

It appears that both rumors were completely wrong and sort of right at the same time. Color – as a company – isn’t being purchased by Apple for an eight figure sum, but Apple is buying Color’s team of 20 engineers for a modest figure of $2 million to $5 million.

Each time Apple releases a new operating system, or new product, they publish a digital support manual for that device relative to the newest version of iOS or OS X. When “the new iPad” was released on March 15th, Apple published the user guide. Ditto for the iPhone 5. And each time a new version of iOS comes out, those guides are updated and published again.

All Apple user guides are up-to-date, except the iPad user guide, which hasn’t been touched since March. Some eagle-eyed observers have wondered why a month has passed since iOS 6’s release without Apple updating it, and it’s probably because Apple’s waiting for the iPad Mini keynote.

Apple has a reputation for having some of the best advertisements in the world. Not only does Apple know how to make unique products that consumers lust for, but they know how to sell them to people better than any company on the planet.

Over the last three decades Apple has had some incredible print ads. Some have struck the heart strings of consumers, while others were just really bad. We took a look at some of the best Apple print ads from the over the years and decided that these are 12 of the best ever.

In March Chris Pirillo showed us what happens when you put Windows 8 in the hands of someone who lacks a lot of computer savvy.  Windows 8 utterly defeated his dad. Now that Windows 8 is close to launch, Pirillo hit the streets to see how other people respond to Microsoft’s new operating system, and the results weren’t pretty.

People were mystified by the new interface and said they’d need some training on how to use it, which is never what you want from your computer, you just want it to work.

By the time the new iPad Mini is announced next week I’m sure someone is going to be able to almost assemble a complete model with leaked components and supplier parts, just like they did with the iPhone 5. The latest leak to hit the Internet claims to show the screen that will be used for the iPad Mini.

Some assumed that the iPad Mini would take after the iPhone 5 and use a 16:9 ratio, but the leaked iPad Mini LCD has a 4:3 ratio and is running on a 16.7Whr battery. Here’s a peak at the screen:

Each time Apple’s made a significant update to a device this year it’s received a significantly larger screen size or resolution. First the iPad came out with a Retina display along with the MacBook Pro, and now the iPhone 5 has a bigger display as well.

That’s great for your eyeballs, but it also means that the average size of apps is growing too, which may end up costing you more in data fees in the long run.

Some radical Orthodox Christians in Russia are starting to have a hard time with Apple’s logo that decorates every iPhone, iPad and MacBook. These Russian Orthodox believe that the half-bitten logo is anti-Christian and represents the act of original sin committed by Adam and Eve in Garden of Eden when they first bit into an apple from the Tree of Knowledge.

To get past Cupertino’s symbol of evil while still using their products, many radical Orthodox, including priests, have swapped the Apple logo out for the much more “holy” image of the cross, a symbol of Jesus Christ.

There are an unlimited number of ways a developer can manage to get their new game rejected by the App Store police. Terry Cavanagh’s free game was rejected for probably the silliest reason you’ve ever heard – he told users that in-app purchases are complete nonsense.

The maker of Super Hexagon submitted his new iOS game, Don’t Look Back, to the App Store a few weeks ago. The game itself is a very basic retro scrolling adventure type game with blocky pixel art. The game is supposed to be free, so in the app description Cavanagh tried to point out to people that they can play Don’t Look Back without having to worry about purchasing items in the game. The game description submitted to Apple read:

Owners of the new iPod Touch may spend a lot more time manually updating the brightness of their device because, unlike previous models, the iPod Touch doesn’t have an ambient light sensor or auto-brightness settings.

After checking the iPod Touch spec sheet, we found out yesterday that Apple left the sensor out on purpose. Why did they ditch it when users have come to expect it? According to a purported email from Apple VP Phil Schiller, the iPod Touch was just too dang for them to fit it in.

It’s finally here. After months of rumors and speculation, the iPad Mini keynote is just days away. Apple just sent out invites to their October 23rd event where they are expected to reveal the iPad Mini, 13-inch MacBook Pros with Retina display, and possibly some new iMacs. The tag line for the event is “We’ve got a little more to show you.”

The event will take place in San Jose at the California Theatre on October 23rd at 10AM PDT. Along with the new hardware, the iPad Mini event is rumored to focus heavily on iBooks. Cult of Mac will live-blog the event, so mark your calendars and tune in.

It’s nearly time for Halloween, which mean you really need to figure out what you’re going to wear when you go trick or treating. Yeah, you could just stop by the store and buy a costume that thousands of people across the country are also going to buy, or you could be totally awesome and make your own.

To help you out we’ve created a guide on how to make your own Apple themed costume. Some are extremely easy, while others require a lot of work. No matter which costume you choose to go with you’ll be ready to show of your love for Apple in a unique way. Check them out:

Continue reading

The Microsoft Surface looks really neat. It does all the cool things that a tablet can do, plus you can use the keyboard cover to switch toward more desktop oriented tasks. Now that Microsoft has announced pricing and a release date for the Microsoft Surface, we’re finally getting a clearer picture of whether it can truly compete with the iPad, and we think it’s going to put up a good fight.

For dedicated Windows users, the Surface is a dream machine that’s just as cheap as an iPad with an innovative operating system to match. There aren’t as many apps available for Windows 8 RT as there are for iOS 6, but surely Microsoft is going to be throwing dollar bills at developers over the next few months to get them to port their apps over. Are you thinking about getting a Microsoft Surface, or will you just get an iPad Mini instead?

Click here to go to the Cult of Mac Forums to tell us what you think about Microsoft’s new iPad competitor

According to the latest round of rumors, Apple will unveil the iPad Mini and a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display on October 23rd. Both aren’t radically new products, they’re just smaller versions of the iPad or 15-inch MacBook Pro.

So which one is more lust worthy? I’ve been using a 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro for a few months now and it’s beautiful, but too bulky compared to the 11-inch MacBook Air I had been using for the last year. A smaller MacBook Pro with a Retina display would be perfect. As far as the iPad Mini goes, I don’t play a lot of games on my iPad, and a smaller screen would make it more portable and better for reading in bed. I can’t decide which one I should want more though. What do you think?

Click here to go to the Cult of Mac Forums and tell us which new Apple device you’re most excited for

Users of OS X Mountain Lion have been able to share reminders with other users since the new OS was released, but now Apple is giving iCloud.com users the ability to share their reminders even when they’re not on a Mac.

An update to iCloud’s Reminders app has added the Shared Reminders ability for users, making iOS 6 the only Reminders portal that can’t share reminders with other users.

Felix Baumgartner is a total bad ass. Like, the dude has got the testicular fortitude of Hercules. Not only did he jump out of a capsule from the edge of space, but he also broke the sound barrier without any propulsion assistance, and he uses a Mac.

To celebrate Felix’s amazing accomplishment you can decorate your iPhone 5 with this breathtaking wallpaper that was captured moments before Baumgartner jumped. Download it here.

Source: Reddit

Apple’s iPad Mini event that is rumored to be taking place on October 23rd is going to be jam packed with goodies. The iPad Mini is coming. Some redesigned iMacs might be revealed too. And now we’ve gotten some solid info that Apple will also unveil a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display at the event.

The iPad mini is getting all the hype this month, but we haven’t heard much about the line of new iMacs that should be coming out some month soon. Apple hasn’t updated the iMac lineup in over 531 days, but according to a new rumor, a redesigned iMac might be unveiled at the iPad mini event on October 23rd.

The Internet is filled with tons of beautiful wallpapers to decorate your iPhone 5 with. The problem is in order to find the high quality ones you have to sort through an endless pile of crap. You don’t got time for that, so one benevolent person has created this massive collection of high quality iPhone 5 wallpapers just for you.

You’re bound to find something you like in the collection, and the layout of the Tumblr page is great for quick browsing on your desktop, and it works fine on the iPhone 5 too. Hurry up and dig in.

Source: iPhoneFiveWallpapers Tumblr