Triggers is a fascinating new idea for simple input-and-output programming on your iOS device. It gives you access to the system-level controls for various bits of hardware, and control what they do in a limited way. If you’ve ever used If This Then That, you’ll get the idea immediately.
One of the challenges that the BYOD and consumerization trends are creating for IT departments is employee use of public and/or personal cloud services. We’ve covered some of the big challenges this presents in terms of data security and ownership as well as the potential business continuity problems stemming from multiple versions of documents stored across different cloud services by multiple employees.
IT concerns may be more common and well-known, but there are cloud-related issues that employees need to consider as well – particularly if they use a work email address to register for a service, access a service from work, or use a service to store or transfer work-related files.
Sonos has updated their Controller app on Android and iOS in preparation for the June 19th launch of the Sonos SUB. The Sonos SUB is the latest addition to their top-notch wireless audio system and adds that ground shaking bass you’ve been looking for. The SUB works with all amplified components: CONNECT:AMP/ZP120/ZP100; PLAY:5/ZonePlayer S:5; PLAY:3 and features:
As technology and always-connected devices become more pervasive in our daily lives, companies, think-tanks, government agencies, non-profits, and other organizations have access tremendous new pools of information about virtually anything on the planet. The challenge of such a “big data” world is how to aggregate that information, analyse it, make substantive conclusions, and then package in a useful form.
Making sense of data and communicating the results in a concise and effective manner is such a big challenge that many organizations will pay research firms and think-tanks to analyse and package data form them – often as static snapshots with pages of text and charts and accompanying PowerPoint files.
The ability to access real-time data in a useful way is one of the things that makes MeLLmo’s iPad app Roambi a great business intelligence tool. Today, however, the company announced that it’s taking Roambi a step further and allowing companies to turn the Roambi’s dynamic and interactive data dashboards into full-fledged iOS apps in their own right and market them in the App Store.
I love my Apple Wireless Keyboard, but I don’t love changing its darn batteries every couple of weeks. But the Logitech K760 Wireless Solar Keyboard could soon be taking its place on my desk. Powered entirely by ambient light (it doesn’t even need batteries as a backup), the K760 will run for three months on a full charge with eight hours of use a day.
It’s ideal for those with Mac and iOS devices, because it allows you to connect to three devices simultaneously and quickly switch between them using the function keys.
https://youtu.be/B9qCLs8txBo
The Apple online store went down for just under seven hours this morning, and many of us were hoping that it would reappear with new the MacBook Pro in tow. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, but there was one new product: the Nest Learning Thermostat that was invented by former Apple engineer and the “father of the iPod” Tony Fadell.
Apple and Facebook have had a rocky relationship since the two failed to reach an agreement on Ping integration and implementing Facebook in iOS 5 last summer. Things are starting to look up for the two Silicon Valley giants under the new direction of Apple CEO Tim Cook.
At the D10 conference today Cook hinted that his company is working with Facebook to provide direct integration with iOS devices in the near future.
May is Mobile Management Month at Cult of Mac, where we will be profiling a different mobile management company every weekday. You can find all previous entries here and read our Mobile Management manifesto here.
FileWave is a new entrant into the mobile management space but a longtime player in many business and enterprise environments. FileWave offer multi-platform file and application deployment and licensing management for all desktop systems across an organization. The company has a very impressive track record for both IT-managed and self-service provisioning and deployment that has made it a solid enterprise solution for companies with Macs, Windows PCs, and Linux desktops. More recently, the company has begun offering iOS device management functionality. For Apple-oriented businesses, the combination of desktop and mobile device application management makes FileWave a choice well worth considering.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been challenging Apple to higher standards for quite some time. Carrying the slogan “defending your rights in the digital world,” the EFF frequently calls out tech companies and related policies when it thinks ramifications could be negative for consumers. The EFF challenged Apple to defend its third-party developers against the Lodsys patent troll, has repeatedly addressed the company’s “anti-competieve” strategies, and so on.
In a new post today, the EFF has proposed that Apple let users of its iOS platform break through the “beautiful crystal prison” and have more control over the OS. The EFF also argues that OS X is becoming more of a restricted platform on the Mac, and that Apple should pave the way for a more open culture leading into the future.
Last week a group of developers banded together to celebrate pricing freedom by launching the Because We May promotion. The promotion, which ends June 1, includes heavily discounted games across multiple platforms. Since its launch, Because We May has received great support and the list of games available has grown tremendously.
Today’s Best Thing Ever has to be InstaCRT, an iPhone photography app that turns all your ideas about iPhone photography upside-down.
RIM has made a lot of headlines lately. Most of them have involved an ongoing exodus of executives leaving the company for greener pastures and/or reports of massive layoffs as the company tried to restructure itself under the leadership of new CEO Thorsten Heins.
There’s one bright spot of publicity for RIM this week, however. J. Crew CEO and Apple board member Millard Drexler uses a BlackBerry Bold 9900 – a fact noted after a CNBC piece about operations at J. Crew.
Is this good news for RIM? Yes and no. It shows that not every major company has abandoned the BlackBerry and not every executive has demanded an iPhone (at least not yet). Of course, if Drexler wasn’t a member of Apple’s board of directors, it’s likely that no one would really care what type of smartphone he used.
The core apps and features in Apple’s iOS operating system have looked largely the same since the original iPhone made its debut back in 2007. Put certain iOS 5 apps — Calendar, Contacts, Maps, YouTube — alongside those from the original iPhone OS and you’ll notice hardly any difference.
However, Apple could be gearing up to make some changes in iOS 6 that will introduce a fresh new look to the iPhone. This summer we could be waving goodbye to that traditional iPhone blue that has adorned iOS apps for the past five years and saying hello to sexy silver.
Mac and iOS business app developer Marketcircle announced the latest of version of Daylite, the company’s business and productivity management app. The new version, released today, is a major upgrade from previous versions. Daylite is an excellent business management tool for OS X and iOS. It focuses on aggregating all manner of company data, monitoring processes, and helping ensure that business users follow up on leads and opportunities. The new release focuses on increasing performance, workflow, and integration with iOS devices.
Mobiles Republic, a well known developer of free news aggregate apps, is proud to announce their latest offering, Sports Republic, just in time for the 2012 Olympics. Stay on top of all the scores and highlights with access to over 1,000 sports articles daily from over 70 trusted news outlets and sports blogs. Users can create and customize their own personalized sports channels using the many features of Sports Republic:
After the insanely fast sellout of tickets for Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, which kicks off in a couple of weeks, we profiled a range of other events for Mac and iOS developers and for IT professionals who support and/or manage Apple’s desktop and mobile platforms.
While these events are great for developers and IT pros, they focus on the underlying technologies of OS X and iOS more than on how companies and other organizations can implement and leverage Macs, iPhones, and iPads in various businesses and industries. For that, there’s the i.Business Expo, a series of events focused on using Apple technologies to both improve business workflows and for customer/client engagement.
Shortly after the Chronic Dev-Team launched Absinthe 2.0 last Friday, Apple pushed out a revised iOS 5.1.1 (9B208) update for the iPhone 4. As yet, no other device has received the same update, and it’s unclear exactly what the software does. But if you installed it accidentally, you’ll be pleased to know that the Rocky Racoon untether now supports it.
WriteRoom, arguably one of the best distraction-free text editors for Mac and iOS, is on sale today for just $1.99 as part of TwoDollarTuesday. That’s 80% off its regular $9.99 price tag, but the offer is valid for today only, so you’ll need to grab it quick.
If you happen to own a LUMIX DMC-FX90, you might be interested to know Panasonic has dropped an app into both the Play and App Store to allow users to view and control certain aspects of their camera remotely. The LUMIX remote allows your Live View screen to be displayed on your smartphone. As long as you perform a firmware update to your FX90, the LUMIX remote app will provide you with:
Storyful for iOS says it can help you “separate the news from the noise.” It plucks interesting news stories from social media networks, spotting the stuff that’s trending and turning it into a news feed. That all sounds great, until you start trying to use it – although it’s a great idea with great promise, it’s let down by too many performance problems.
Now that you’ve filled your device with bargain iOS games from those Memorial Day App Store sales, maybe it’s time to accessorize it, too. ZAGG, which makes some of the finest accessories for mobile devices, has discounted 20% off keyboards and cases, and 50% off almost everything else.
Kicking off this week’s must-have apps roundup is a new web browser from Yahoo! called Axis, which hopes to redefine web searching on desktops and iOS devices. We’ve also got a terrific app for web editors, one that’ll help you monitor which apps are accessing your personal data, and two new apps from Facebook.
Men in Black 3, the official game of one of this year’s biggest action blockbusters, is now available on iPhone and iPad, finally giving you the opportunity to create and manage your own MiB agency and protect New York from the scum of the universe. It’s completely free and its leading this week’s must-have games roundup, which also includes Sega’s first Virtua Tennis title for iOS, a stunning new game from Chillingo, and more.
Today the Chronic Dev Team released a new version of Absinthe, the popular tool used to jailbreak iPhones, iPads, and iPods. In this video, I’ll show how to jailbreak your device running iOS 5.1.1 with Absinthe.
Over the course of May, we’ve highlighted a number of different mobile management companies in our Mobile Management Month series. Profiling these companies made me realize how much the mobile management market has expanded to include cloud or SaaS options in addition to on-premise servers installed inside a company’s network.
That’s hardly surprising really – after all cloud models are being applied to almost every type of business computing need.
There are several significant and attractive advantages to using a cloud service as your approach to mobile management, particularly for small businesses.