Who says iPad keyboards have to run on Bluetooth? Not MacAlly, that’s for sure. The iKey30 is a good ol’ USB keyboard which sports a 30-pin dock connector on the end of its cable, and comes with an almost ridiculous number of special function keys.
If you visited the site yesterday, you’ll already be aware that Cult of Mac’s weekly must-have apps and games roundups are now back. This is where we choose our pick of the best new releases and updates to hit the App Store in the past week.
This week’s feature includes the official Klout app, which has finally made its way to iOS; a great service for storing and syncing your passwords from security specialists Norton; a beautiful weather app, and more.
There’s no question that the iPad and iPhone are two of the best ways to watch a movie. But the biggest problem is getting our favorite DVD’s on to the dang things. Sure, you can go to iTunes and buy a digital copy of your movie, again. But that costs a lot of money if you want a digital copy of all your movies, and if you already own the physical disc, what’s the point? Plus, once you download those movies, the iPad only has a limited amount of storage available. Those two hurdles prevent a lot of people from fully realizing the beauty of owning an iOS device by watching their favorite movies.
This week we’re bringing you two solutions to get over your DVD ripping hurdles: the MacX DVD Ripper Pro Stream Edition and MacX Video Converter Pro by Digiarty. MacX DVD Ripper Pro Streamer’s package includes the ability to rip movie files from the DVDs you already own, convert them into iPhone and iPad supported video files, and wirelessly stream them to your iOS device. MacX Video Converter Pro can take those files and convert them to any video format you need, or download your favorite Vimeo and YouTube videos right off the web. Not only is Digiarty’s software awesome, and easy enough for your momma to use, but they’re giving it away, FREE, to all Cult of Mac readers for the next 7 days!
Here’s how to get your copy:
Following a short hiatus, Cult of Mac’s weekly must-have apps and games features are back! Here we’ll roundup our pick of the week’s best iOS titles, including our favorite new releases and updates worth writing home about.
This week’s picks feature what is quite possibly the best arcade fighter yet to hit the App Store, awesome updates to Angry Birds Space and Jetpack Joyride, plus a fantastic platformer that I just can’t put down.
True story: When my mother was pregnant with me, she and her friends got together to do a Ouija board. The story goes that the glass moved around, and then smashed. My mother told everyone that they should finish things up properly, and “put the spirit away,” or some such thing.
They laughed, and ignored her. Over the next few weeks, everybody present at the séance had an accident. My mother fell out of her car while leaning out the door to reverse. Luckily, her hair was styled in a bun, which cushioned the impact.
Did this make me superstitious? Nope. In fact, the first thing I thought when I saw this Ouija Book Cover Case (€66 or $87) from Etsy maker Joe V was “if you’re able to look into the future and communicate with the other side, Mr.V, then why the hell is the screen of your iPad so scratched up? Surely you should have seen that coming?”
Skepticism aside, the leather book cover looks like the perfect Christmas gift for Cult of Mac’s own resident mysticist John Brownlee aka. Dr.Crypt. Or should I say “pagan midwinter fertility-festival gift”? The hefty tome is etched with the alphabet, numbers from one to zero and — of course — the words “yes” and “no.” Thus equipped, our hard-working editor will be able to check up on us minions without even entering our Cult of Mac chatroom.
“Will Charlie finally write a serious post?” he will chant in monotone, as the empty diet Coke can moves all by itself over to “no,” yet again.
“Whose post will get the most page views next week?” he will continue, and the can will scrape drily across the leather towards the letter “B.” Then, as it slides down and right towards the “U,” Dr. Crypt will hurl the can aside in petulant frustration. “Damn you, Buster Heine,” he’ll shout, “Damn you and your interesting, reader-friendly posts!”
Then, as Mr. Brownlee’s harsh words float down onto the aging cowskin, something happens on the other side of the country. As Buster picks up his morning beverage and relaxes with his iPad to read the news, the air suddenly grows chill, and the screen doors start to flap and slam in the rising breeze. Buster looks up to see the livid, contorted face of his editor swirling in the mists now whipping in through the open windows. He starts, and the iPad slips from his hands, cracking the screen in one corner.
If only he’d had it in a sturdy, witchcraft-proof case.
Jean Michel Jarre might be laying off the lasers, the lightshows and the spectacular outdoor concerts, but he’s not letting his 63 years catch up with him: he has simply switched his ostentatious attentions to high-end iPhone and iPad docks.
The latest is the AeroPad Two, a 30-pin dock connector-equipped behemoth of a home stereo which could probably shake your house to pieces.
Apple’s Newsstand feature wasn’t without controversy as the company rolled it out. Issues around Apple’s control of subscriptions as well as the company’s 30% cut of content sales were hotly debated last year. However, with Newsstand a hit, publishers (and Apple) are reaping $70,000 a day from it.
And, if publishing execs everywhere agree with The Economist’s CEO Andrew Rashbass, that controversy is dead and buried – and it’s other iOS digital distribution models that pose a threat to publishers.
It’s no secret that the iPad is Apple’s fastest selling product ever. That fact was made clear during the company’s recent financial call when Tim Cook compared how long it took for other Apple products to reach current iPad sales figures. What hasn’t been as clear is just how much the iPad is expanding Apple’s overall customer base.
A new NPD study, however, shows that the iPad is playing a significant role in helping Apple attract new customers. It turns out that one out of every four iPad buyers have never owned an Apple product before.
Let’s play a quick game of word association. I’ll write a word, and you say whatever pops into your head (feel free to put on a Bluetooth headset and yell out your answers if you are in a public place — everyone will be totally impressed):
iPhone.
Curtain.
Wood.
Tripod.
iPad.
If your response to the last word — iPad — was “large-format camera,” then what we have ourselves here, ladies and gentlemen, is a segue. An awkward, forced segue that leads us right to this video showing just how a large format camera is made.
Screenshot Journal was created “with iOS designers and developers in mind,” but it is useful for anyone who takes a lot of screenshots. For instance — and I’ll pick a completely random example here — tech bloggers.
The (universal) app does one thing: gather all the screenshots from your camera roll and organize them for your viewing pleasure.
Apple continues its rollout of the new iPad in nine additional countries today, making the sought-after tablet available in 57 markets worldwide. This is now the fourth phase of rollouts since the device made its debut on March 16, but one of Apple’s key territories is still without it.
Attention dissidents, free-thinkers or just people who are plain on the run: now you can take your iPad with you and not get caught. Onion Browser is a Universal iOS web browser which will hook into the Tor network to provide you with anonymous browsing, wherever you are.
File this one under “stuff I should have known but totally didn’t.” I’m guessing that a few of you didn’t know this either, or have forgotten if you once did. For the rest of you who might say, “meh. I know this one already,” I’m more than glad to point you in the direction of all our other iOS tips in search of something you didn’t know, smartypants.
Google maps rocks on my iPhone, and I’ve recently begun using my iPad to get around as well. Google Street View is fantastic on the computer, allowing me to virtually stalk my old home town and friends that still live there, the poor dears. I’ve never put two and two together, however, and realized that I could, in fact, engage in some Street View joy right on my iOS device of choice. Here’s how.
Until I took delivery of the Don’t Panic iPad case this week, this Custom Jacket from Skech has been my new favorite iPad case. It looks like leather, but is in fact artfully textured (and fully vegan) plastic, it holds the iPad tight and safe, and it weighs next to nothing. It also look pretty damn good.
Let’s take a closer look.
Mobile management and security vendor Good released its quarterly device activations report. The report covers January through March and showed that the iPhone 4S was the commonly activated mobile device among Good’s business and enterprise customers followed by the iPad 2. The iPad overall (original, iPad 2, and new iPad) accounted for virtually all tablet activations.
Good’s quarterly report focused on iOS and Android device activations. The data is based on a mix of both business-owned devices and employee personal devices used in the workplace as part of a BYOD strategy.
Oh, man. Today is totally turning into Kickstarter day here on Cult of Mac. The latest accessory from everybody’s favorite crowd-funded idea factory is the Brydge, another keyboard case which will turn your iPad into a miniature MacBook Air-a-like.
This case has a little twist, though. Instead of offering an entire laptop-shaped shell into which you can drop the tablet, it has a clever hinge which holds the iPad and uses it as the entire lid of the clamshell case.
This entire week we’ve been showing you guys how to take your DVD movie collection, rip the movie files off your DVDs, and get those movies playing on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Thanks to the software gurus at Digiarty, the entire process is free this week to Cult of Mac readers because Digiarty is giving away their popular MacX DVD Ripper Pro Stream Edition software absolutely free to anyone who reads Cult of Mac and has a pretty smile.
Yesterday we showed you how to rip your DVDs onto your computer, but what if you don’t want to waste all your iPhone or iPad’s storage space on movie files you might not watch for a while? Well, Digiarty has an easy-to-use solution which solves that dilemma. Air Playit is part of the free giveaway package Digiarty is handing out, and it turns your Mac into a server that will stream your ripped DVD movie files straight to your iPad or iPhone. It’s so simple your grandma can do.
Follow these three steps to get your ripped DVDs streaming to your iPad or iPhone right now:
I don’t hate the iPad’s speaker as much as I used to. The rear-firing grille on the iPads 2 and 3 doesn’t sound that bad if you lay the iPad face down and let it blast its vibrations straight at you. But as most of us use the iPad to watch movies, or to listen to music while reading, this adequate-sounding speaker simply sends its sound off into the nothingness, hoping that a nearby wall might reflect a little of it back to your ears.
My current answer is a battery-powered Bluetooth speaker, but that’s battery powered. And heavy. The Amplifiear, on the other hand, is lightweight and requires no power.
iOSLiveTV is a web-based TV service that allows you to watch premium TV channels on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch completely free of charge. It’s just like TV English Premium, the app we told you about last week, only it works… incredibly well. And it offers a lot more channels and AirPlay support.
Business and career social network LinkedIn has finally released an iPad app – or, more accurately, a universal app for both the iPad and iPhone. In designing the new app, LinkedIn scrapped the clunky and somewhat confusing user interface of its earlier releases completely and built the new version based on the usage habits of users browsing the site from their iPads. The result is a complete new and stunningly simple app with a very Apple-like feel to it.
Imagine the scene: You are a student in England, living in a broken-down house further broken down into noisy, thin-walled apartments (or “flats,” to use the local term). One of your junkie friends has sold you a (totally legit, honest) iPad for just £50, and you need somewhere to stash it for both security and protection.
You look around your decrepit kitchen and see a chipboard door hanging from one of the cupboards. You rip it off and attack it with a saw, screwing and glueing until you have a sturdy box for your non-stolen tablet. To close the hole in the top you pull the artists beret you’ve recently taken to wearing from under a pile of dirty laundry and cut it to fit over the gap. Behold! An iPad case.
But what to do next? If your name is Eric Rea, you quickly form a company called Fine Grain, open up a Kickstarter project and start hawking your new invention under the name “BOWDEN + SHEFFIELD Minimalist iPad Cases.”
Apple’s iOS devices have been stealing market share from portable consoles since the day the App Store opened its doors. Four years later, they have led Nintendo to report its first ever annual operating loss of $454.4 million.
Rogue Amoeba’s AirFoil started out as a way to stream any non-iTunes audio to your AirPort Express mini-router, back when AirPlay was still called AirTunes. Then it was expanded with a free iOS app which would let you stream music from AirFoil on the Mac to AirFoil on your iPod or iPhone, handy for hooking up to a stereo.
Now we have AirFoil Speakers Touch 3 for iOS, and it adds in proper AirPlay support, letting you send music from pretty much any iDevice you own.
Head on by the kiddy table at your local Apple Store and you used to see four iMacs, loaded up with educational software and games. Go on by with your kid today and you’ll see four iPads running educational iOS apps instead.
Hope they wipe those things down frequently: never seen a kid without at least several culture farms worth of germs on his or her pink, sticky hands. Those iPads are going to be disease-crusted petri dishes after a day’s worth of kids finish sliming them up.
Otherwise, great call. The only better learning tool for a child than an iMac is an iPad.
This is Fragile Earth, an interactive photo gallery designed to teach you a little about ecology, conservation and the natural environment.