After we published the Men’s section to our 2010 Holiday Gift Guide earlier this week, a few of our readers — not realizing that we were parceling out the guide in sections (Teens are up next) — wondered why we hadn’t made any suggestions for women. Fear not, dear readers: There’s no way we’d miss out on confessing all our favorite gadget, case and app gift ideas for women. We’ve even got pillows in there!
We know you like to shop. We know you like gear. And we know there’s a honking big holiday season coming up.
Over the past year or so, we’ve run across some drool-worthy gear we think would make perfect gifts for the holidays. And, in the spirit of holiday sharing, we whipped up this handy guide you can print out, laminate and take with you while out foraging. (Come to think of it, laminating can be expensive. Maybe just put it in a binder.)
Halloween, with its legions of black-clad kids running around and darting out into the street, introduces its own variety of driving perils. So in addition to warning other users of speed traps and red-light cameras, Trapster users can now mark two new location types on its map this Halloween: haunted houses and trick-or-treat zones.
The free app works through crowdsourcing, which means any registered user can add markers which then become viewable to other Trapster users; and if users find a marker that’s inaccurate (say, if some user tagged their in-laws place as a haunted house), it can be removed with enough votes against it. Now if only the had a marker for houses with the best candy…
On Monday, we mentioned the launch of Peel, a new app that uses an algorithm similar to the one used by Netflix to try and figure out what its user should watch. Here’s the second half: A peek under the hood, excerpts from a chat with Peel’s (née Zelfy) VP of marketing, and a look at an accompanying piece of hardware that’s (maybe) coming next.
This might be the ultimate nightmare Halloween mask in Redmond, Wa. Regular Cult visitors will no doubt have seen it alongside ads for CultofMac Editor Leander Kahney’s book, Inside Steve’s Brain. The illustration was crafted by graphic designer Dan Draper, who also rendered the uncannily close image of the new MacBook Air for our scoop on the MBA’s details.
A life-size image suitable for plastering over an actual face can be found at Draper’s flickr page. Heads up! Trick or iPod Shuffle!
Apple is making a big deal about the jazzed-up photo book capabilities in iLife ’11, and for good reason — being able to cradle a vibrant, printed image still trumps the digital alternative. But iPhoto isn’t the only way to transform pixels into ink.
Simply Postcards lets users grab any photo off their iPhone and snail-mail it to an address in the U.S. or elsewhere. Postcards ship the day after ordering them, and prices range from $1-$2 for a stateside address to double that for international cards.
The app is free, and so is the first postcard; the Cult is going to use its free credits to brighten the Microsoft HQ mailbox with images of our new MacBook Airs!
The iPad is just about perfect for reading magazines; surprising, then, that more publishers haven’t come out with iPad-specific apps, right? Thankfully, publishers seem to be catching on, and last week saw two tricked-out versions of women’s magazines debut as apps on the iPad.
Couch potatoes take note: Peel, a free app that’s a sort of mix between Netflix’s movie suggestions and TV Guide, made its debut last week.
And it’s got a star-studded development team backing it up. Core members of the original iTunes team helped create Peel’s interface, and a team that beat Netfilx’s movie-suggestion algorithm in a competition worked on Peels innards.
Docks that can accommodate the iPad are a quickly swelling niche in the home electronics market; iHome’s throws another hat into the ring with their wide-stanced iA100, combining a sleek look and Bluetooth connectivity.
Bluetooth capabilities include streaming music from a BT-equipped iDevice, and turning the unit into an iPhone speakerphone (though Skyping won’t work, as Skype has yet to add BT functionality to their app). Sound from four active speakers is enhanced through the same Bongiovi DPS processing technology found on their flagship iP1, and a free app available through the app store add a slew of features like enhanced alarm controls, and even sleep stats.
The iA100 is available now, and sells for $199.
This is turning out to be a pretty artsy weekend for the iPad. Not only will there be an explosion of iPad and iPhone art at the first ever Mobile ArtCon in Manhattan, but Infinite Dreams has also just launched a free version of their Let’s Create Pottery HD app, which turns the iPad into a virtual pottery wheel and kiln and has to be one of the most stunning creative apps we’ve seen on the device. there’s even a virtual showroom, where finished creations can be displayed.
The full, $5 version of the app will also be on sale at $3 through the weekend, though it’s not immediately clear what the differences are between the two.
That was quick. An 11-inch sleeve for the MBA was announced from Tom Bihn yesterday, while Waterfield released a whole slew of cases tailored to both version of the MBA.
San Francisco-based Waterfield Designs offerings will ship at the end of this month and include the tough, ballistic nylon SleeveCase in both 11- and 13-inch sizes (at $37 and $39 respectively), which can be customized with add-on options; and the ultra-thin 11-inch ($25) and 13-inch ($29) Suede Jacket Sleeve. and will ship at the end of October. Tom Bihn has made an 11-inch, MBA-specific version of its Cache padded sleeve ($30), which will ship a little later than the Waterfields, in early November.
UPDATE: Well, turns out we were wrong about this one; it’s been around for awhile. Crow, anyone?
That rumor we mentioned yesterday — the one where we thought Apple would announce a new social network based around Apple Genii? Turns out Apple quietly added something very close to what we predicted yesterday during the virtual Apple Store’s refresh for the new MacBook Air and iLife ’11.
Crap! You just popped for a new MacBook Pro two weeks ago, and now Apple goes and releases the superfabulous iLife ’11, meaning you’ve gotta fork over another $49 for a copy (or $79 for the five-computer Family Pack), right?
Nope! Apple is letting recent Mac buyers upgrade from the previous version of iLife for $7, so long as they bought the Mac(s) on or after Oct. 1; same deal applies to anyone buying a Mac now or in the future without iLife ’11. Bummer: The $7 upgrade is only available online, so you’ll have to wait for it in the mail — or wince as you pay for a $49 copy from an Apple Store, if you’re in a hurry.
Despite a massive lion lurking in the background of the press invite for today’s event, the big news didn’t have much to do with OS X 10.7 (now officially “Lion”); instead, the big news was about the new MacBook Air pair, the Mac App Store, FaceTime for Mac — and iLife ’11
In fact, iLife almost stole the thunder from the later “one more thing” MacBook Air announcement. And for good reason: There’re some really impressive features included in this round of what is quite possibly the best software suite to ever come standard on a manufacturer’s entire product line.
In just a few hours, Apple will announce a new version of OS X, and will almost certainly unveil new MacBook Airs and new versions of iLife/iWork. But we’re wondering if they won’t reveal one more thing: a social media network with the goal of creating millions of home-based Apple Genii at its core.
One expects great things from an app costing double its nearest competitor (which happens to be the excellent $5 Cyclemeter). And for the most part, BiCycle — a $10 cycling app that uses the iPhone’s GPS receiver to log data — delivers. But while the app is well-designed and contains features not found elsewhere, there’re a few gaping holes that should make potential purchasers pause before taking the plunge.
Here’s a juicy excerpt, already up on YouTube, from Apple’s conference call today where Steve Jobs dropped by and bashed Google repeatedly with an Apple-shaped hammer.
Steve Jobs made an unusual visit to Apple’s quarterly conference call today, sounding ebullient about Apple’s record sales figures for the fourth quarter of 2010, and boasted of Apple’s dominance over RIM, bashed Google and praised both the homogeny of iOS and the careful thinking that went into the design of the iPad compared to the “avalanche of tablets. Here’re the highlights, and some juicy quotes:
Apple announced a record $20.4 billion in revenue during the fiscal 2010 fourth quarter, and a profit of $4.31 billion, in a press release ahead of their quarterly financial conference call.
Sales of Macs increased a sizable 27 percent from the same quarter last year; 14.1 million ipPhones were sold, a whopping 91 percent increase from last year’s Q4.
“We are blown away to report over $20 billion in revenue and over $4 billion in after-tax earnings—both all-time records for Apple,” Steve Jobs said in Apple’s press release.
iPad sales topped out at just over four million, and iPod sales declined by 11 percent.
For new iPhoners, the idea of gulping down unlimited swathes of data is just a magical thing of the past, spoken of with hushed tones, in the days before fear of data overages gripped the iPhone universe.
Fear not though, new iPhoner — the tools exist to keep from accidentally punching through the monthly 3G data allotment. Readers who’ve been following our Essential App series (and who live in the States) have no doubt already equipped their iPhones with AT&T’s free myWireless app, which counts and bar graphs data usage; but there’s an even more precise and powerful weapon available: DataMan
Earlier this year, Etymotic began a new program that allows purchasers of pretty much any of their products — earphones, Bluetooth headsets, whatever — to own custom-molded eartips for an extra $100. Etymotic offered to let me try a set of these custom eartips (full disclosure: on their tab) with the hf2s I tested, and off we went.
Maybe it’s my (only somewhat) jaded inner journalist, but bubbly marketing language almost never rouses me. So naturally, I dismissed the phrases “rediscover your music” and “stunning mobile music fidelity,” printed on the box of Etymotic’s microphone-equipped hf2 earphones, as standard advertising blather.
After a few hours of listening to music through the hf2s I went back and read the box again, this time with wider eyes — because damned if for once some outfit’s marketing department hadn’t made a claim that was actually spot-on accurate. In fact, the thought crossing my mind as I gleefully ripped through my music collection, trying to see how many tracks would give me goosebumps, was that maybe those marketing peeps had even been too subtle about the hf2’s performance — that maybe the box should have just been plastered in wild neon stickers bearing candid phrases like “THESE ARE *&@#$ AWESOME!!” (and that’s why I wouldn’t last long in marketing).
It doesn’t do much — no fancy vocal wizardry, just adjusts the pitch of the user’s voice up or down — but Devil Voice looks like the first instance of a real-time voice-changing app, without the need to record a user’s voice first before playback — though it can, if desired.
The app is a dollar, and comes out just in time for Halloween; see our forthcoming Halloween Guide for examples on how to duct tape it and attached speakers into a Darth Vader mask and whatnot.
Alone, the iPhone’s functions are pretty cool; then someone comes along, combines two (or more) of them and bam — vigorously ups the wow-factor.
Today that someone is TomTom, who has just updated its popular turn-by-turn GPS app (we’ve linked to the North American version, coz that’s where we’re based) to include a “navigate-to-photo” feature that lets users enter a destination simply by tapping on any geo-tagged photo on their iPhone.
The update also includes new optimized accuracy for the iPhone 4 and is currently available only for their North American and European versions.
Potential and current (see what I did there) Chevrolet Volt owners will be pleased to hear that the mostly electric car’s iPhone app will finally be hitting the App Store at the end of October.
The app includes a ton of interesting controls and features: Charge the Volt immediately or schedule a charge time; check charge status and battery level; display expected range; and display various data tracked while driving like how many miles were electric-only, how many were gas. That’s on top flashy functions like being able to start the car from the app and mess with the door locks.
An OnStar spokesperson told us the Volt comes with five years of free OnStar service — other cars get six months free — and that the app will be free for the iPhone (and the Droid — sorry, Blackberry). Not impressed with (mostly) electric vehicles? OnStar will be making the app (sans Volt-specific functions) available for about a dozen or so additional OnStar-equipped cars in the near future.