John Brownlee - page 96

Apple recently followed Amazon’s lead in unveiling a “Free App Of The Week” category, and this week’s is a doozy: Nik Software’s practically perfect image editor, Snapseed.

Normally priced at $5, Snapseed is a fantastic photo editing app that allows you some fantastic control over manipulating and editing photos that you’ve taken with your iPhone. It’s simple enough that even the most Photoshop-unfriendly Instragrammer can use it. This isn’t the first time Snapseed has been free, but my guess is a lot more people will download it this time.

In addition to making Snapseed free, Apple has also declare their Editor’s Choice picks for the week: Nick Jr Draw & Play (iPhone), Nick Jr Draw & Play HD (iPad), Rock(s) Rider (Universal) and Heroes Call (iPad.

I really love these poignant ads for the Brazilian iPad magazine app, Veja, all of which feature a single finger “dipped” in a different news story after loading up the app. A story about an oil spill features a digit dripping with crude, while a story about genocide coats the finger in blood. The effect is more subtle for the third ad, which shows a pruned finger being held up after a story on a flood.

Not only are these ads gorgeous to look at, but the dripping finger metaphor is a poignant one, not only for the way the iPad has changed the way many of us experience news, but for the immersive power of iOS as a whole.

Beautifully done. Here are the other two ads.

Apple has begun a hiring push to find lead design engineers to help them make the long-rumored iPizza a reality, Cult of Mac has exclusively learned.

The advert, posted today on Apple’s jobs board, calls for a candidate with at least four years experience in the Neapolitan supply chain. Intriguingly, one of the skills required for the position is the “ability to hand stretch the pizza (without using a rolling pin),” suggesting that the new iPizza will be built with a revolutionary new manufacturing process.

Talk of an iPizza is not new. Over the years, Steve Jobs was spotted many times in Silicon Valley researching slices of pizza, leading to ongoing speculation that Apple was interested in entering the saucy Italian pie industry.

Samsung’s predilection for shamelessly ripping off Apple’s design is well documented at this point. Here’s Samsung shamelessly ripping off the iOS homescreen. Here’s Samsung shamelessly ripping off the iPod touch. Here’s Samsung shamelessly ripping off the Smart Cover. Here’s Samsung shamelessly ripping off the iPhone 3G. And here’s Samsung even ripping off an actress from an iPhone commercial.

If Samsung’s ever going to quit ripping off Apple’s design team and make their own damn products, they show no sign of abating, as the latest product design to be ripped off by Samsung is their new Chromebox, which looks almost identical to the Mac mini: a tiny aluminum box with a black circular opening at the bottom. Unbelievable.

Source: Dan Curtis

In a recent article over at The Wall Street Journal, Nokia’s challenges trying to make a dent in the iPhone 4S with the Lumia 900 are highlighted by some pretty grim numbers: Nokia makes more than $200 less on each Nokia Lumia 900 sold compared to Apple’s profit on an iPhone 4S.

Apple’s iPad Smart Cover is a wonderful product. Not only is it pretty much the most minimal yet versatile iPad case around, it’s fun, attractive aesthetic — inspired by Japanese bath covers — hides some serious engineering beneath the surface thanks to its 30+ odd magnets.

So it’s a great product. Did you know that for Apple, though, Smart Covers alone are a $2 billion a year business?

Ever wondering if you’d be better off working for Apple than your current company? A job at Cupertino isn’t guaranteed to make you rich, but they do pay their talent fairly well, especially their engineers and designers. Here’s a list of some of the most common positions within Apple, along with their average salary, in ranking order.

Apple has reportedly bought small Italian startup Redmatica, a company that specializes in making digita music-editing apps that all run on the Mac.

Apple isn’t going to debut their new rumored HDTV set at WWDC 2012, but according to a new report, they will unveil the version of iOS that it will run on, and which will be coming to the Apple TV set-top box later this year. Even more interesting? Your Apple TV might soon become the hub through which the rest of your living room connects.

We have yet to see a full video of Tim Cook’s interview with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at last night’s D10, but this 17-minute video contains most of the highlights, including Tim Cook talking about how Apple names products, what Apple has planned for Siri in the coming months, Tim Cook talking about possible future Facebook integration, what’s coming up for the Apple TV, and why Apple thinks patents are a huge pain in the ass.

For many Apple fans, there’s a hypnotic allure to the idea of working for their favorite tech company, even if it’s just a job manning the Genius Bar at the local Apple Store. But what happens when you actually get called in for an interview? What’s it like to actually work at the Apple Store?

The truth is few applicants will ever know, as it’s almost impossible to get a job at an Apple Retail store at anything besides an entry-level, part-time sales position, no matter how qualified or educated you are. Once in, it’s almost impossible to move up the ladder, you will be poorly paid, you will probably never see a raise above basic inflation, you will be overworked and you will be abused day-in and day-out by customers. If you soldier through and rise up the ladder, the job can be rewarding, but more often than not, it’s not just retail hell… it’s worse than retail.

If you’ve ever seen an old color movie like The Wizard of Oz you’ve probably seen the “Filmed In Glorious Technicolor” crawl. In fact, for years, Technicolor was synonymous with seeing color on film and on your screens, and for good reasons: Technicolor was ingenious.

Despite the fact that no one had invented film stock that could actually capture color, the French company had figured out a way to make color movies by splitting the light being recorded with a prism into red, green and blue light, then recording those individual color spectrums onto separate strips of black-and-white film. Once these strips of film were colored and combined, the result was life-like color recorded on black-and-white film.

Pretty cool, huh? In the days of digital cinema, though, Technicolor has fallen on hard times. In fact, their entire company is unprofitable, with the exception of one department that keeps 220 staff on hand. It’s the patent licensing department, and their only job is to rip open new iPhones, iPads and Macs the second they come out and start looking for infringements.

Did you ever wonder how Apple makes its unibody MacBooks and iMacs so tough, durable and so uniformly beautiful? Ever wonder how Apple manages to make their iPods so colorful? It’s all through the electrochemical magic of anodization. In other words? That brand new Apple gadget you’re so proud of is just as corroded as a piece of rusty iron.

Rumor has had it for the past few months that Apple was going to phase out its reliance upon Google’s Maps API in iOS 6 in favor of its own revolutionary new mapping system, which it has been working on off-and-on since 2009. Now Boy Genius Report has exclusive images of what they say is the new iOS 6 Maps app in action, and boy, if the composite mock-up they put together based on those images is anything to go by,  it looks like a total game changer.

You one of the lucky ones who managed to buy a ticket to this year’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference during the approximately two hours while tickets were on sale? Apple’s posted the schedule of events that you can expect, as well as the requisite app making finding and scheduling your itinerary for WWDC 2012 all the easier.

Source: developer.apple.com

Yesterday, Apple yanked Airfoil Speakers Touch for unspecified reasons. A little birdie told us it was because Airfoil Speakers Touch duplicated inherent functionality in iOS 6. It’s possible that that’s still true, but if it is, it’s not why Airfoil Speakers Touch was pulled, as Apple has now gone on record saying it was actually because Rogue Amoeba violated a developer guideline against non-public APIs.

In the latest iPhone 4S ads that debuted earlier this week starring actor John Malkovich, Siri tells a joke upon request… and let’s face it, it’s a pretty lame one. Not bad for a computer, but the kind of thing that would get you beaten up in the men’s room at the local Laugh Emporium if you pulled it out during your set at open mic night.

What if Siri told a real joke? What if she told a dirty joke? Heck, what if she told the dirtiest joke there is? Here’s a great video parody of the recent ad, with a very, very clever (and totally safe for work!) take on that old blue comedy classic, The Aristocrats.

If you’ve never heard The Artistocrats before, Bob Saget’s version (go figure!) is generally considered to be one of the filthiest. You can compare and contrast Siri’s version to it here (NSFW!)

Thanks: Gil!

The latest jailbreak is officially out, but now that your device is nice and jailbroken, what are you supposed to do with it? What are the must-have jailbreak apps and tweaks you should download first?

In many ways, some of the most innovative and daring development work is happening on Cydia these days, so if you’re new to jailbreaking, we envy the discovery you have to come. Here’s our list of some of the best jailbreak apps and tweaks.

Update: According to our tipster, Airfoil Speakers Touch wasn’t yanked arbitrarily, but instead because it duplicates functionality in the still unreleased and officially unannounced iOS 6. Our source says that in iOS 6, an Apple TV, for example, can pipe sound from a movie to an iPod touch, iPhone or iPad, and any iOS device will be able to beam audio to another. We’re trying to get more details, and have reached out to Apple and Rogue Amoeba for comment. Original post is below.

Update: 2: We’ve added Rogue Amoeba’s official comment at the bottom of this post.

Rogue Amoeba are some of the good guys. They’ve released some of the Mac’s coolest audio apps, including Airfoil, Audio Hijack Pro, Piezo, Pulsar, Nicecast and Fission, and we’ve long been a fan of their version of Airfoil for iOS. Called Airfoil Speakers Touch, the app allowed you to stream audio over AirPlay from your Mac, PC or iDevice to any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. We’ve been rocking it since 2009.

Now Airfoil Speakers Touch is dead, killed for unspecified reasons by Apple’s App Store review team while the guys at Rogue Amoeba scratch their heads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8fJjt068s6s

Coming on the heels of Facebook’s $1 billion Instagram acquisition, but otherwise pretty much out of nowhere, the social networking giant just released a brand new Camera app called Facebook Camera… and it’s so much like Instagram that you have to wonder if Facebook bought the up-and-coming app just so it could put a bullet through its head before it became a real threat.

After two months of scarcity, Apple’s finally gotten its new iPad production ramped up enough to get a new iPad to you the same week you ordered one, from a Foxconn factory straight to your door in 1-3 business days. Just three weeks ago, it still took 3-5 business days for Apple to ship a new iPad to an online customer. In another three weeks, you might be able to overnight one.

Apple’s done a lot better with new iPad supply compared to the iPad 2. Not only did everyone who wanted one on launch day pretty much get one, but it took Apple about four months last year to get shipping times down to 1-3 business days, and five months to get it down to within 24 hours. Let’s hope this is a trend towards having enough supply to go around that continues with the iPhone 5.

Source: Apple

French newspaper Le Figaro is reporting that Apple’s European, Middle East and Africa aVP, Pascal Cagni, has resigned from Apple after a twelve year tenure, having first been appointed by Steve Jobs directly back in April 2000.

In that last dozen years, Cagni drove revenue in Europe from $1 billion to more than $19 billion.

Right now, Cagni’s LinkedIn profile still lists him as employed by Apple.

We’ve reached out to Apple for confirmation. More as we get it.

Source: LeFigaro
Via: The Next Web

We already know that between hundreds of different Android builds and handsets, Google’s smartphone OS is hopelessly fragmented, and requires immense expense and time on the part of developers to get even a simple app working reliably.

But the problem with Android — and why it’s such a bitch to develop for — goes deeper than just too many handsets and OS builds to support. Even developing a simple music app for Android is a nightmare due to Android fragmentation, because Google couldn’t even get volume control on Android right out of the box.

Sometimes a good idea doesn’t have to be radical. It doesn’t have to have a $70,000 Kickstarter goal. Sometimes a good idea is just simplicity itself: easy to produce, affordable to own, beautifully designed and genuinely useful.

That’s what makes our eyes pop about The Wrap. Designed by Michiel Cornelissen, the Wrap is a simple plug that fits on the USB end of a European iPhone wall charger. Thread your 30-pin dock connector cable through The Wrap and you can easily wrap the whole cord around it. That’s it. Just EUR 9.95.

I love this. It’s just beautifully useful and wonderfully understated. And while The Wall is Europe-only for now, Cornelissen says that if 100 people email him saying they want a US version, he’ll make one. Get clamoring, people.

Source: Michiel Cornelissen

Ever wish your MacBook Air came in carbon fiber black? Or maybe you just miss the classic old iPod white Apple used to ship its MacBooks in, and wish your Air was as clean and ivory?

Moshi’s got you covered. They’ve just announced the iGlaze, an ultra-slim case for your MacBook Air that adds maximal protection, minimum thickness and lets you have your Air in any color, as long as it’s black or white.