iPhone - page 212

If I have to put my new iPhone 5s in a case because I forgot to buy AppleCare+ during the first 30 days and I’m terrified I’ll drop it on its face, then I want that case to be sleek and simple and made of leather. The CalypsoCase Loop is all of those things.

Handcrafted by a team of skilled craftsmen in Ljubljana, Slovenia, the Loop is a beautiful slip-on sleeve made of only the finest leather that provides your iPhone with all the protection it needs when it’s not in use. It has laser-cut titanium foundations that retain its shape and offer impact protection, and a soft inner lining that lovingly caresses your iPhone’s aluminum without marking it.

The Loop is available in four colors, and it’s priced at €89 (approx. $120) with free shipping. Let me tell you why it’s worth that price tag.

The HBO Go apps for Android and iOS have today been updated with support for Google’s Chromecast. The feature works on Android smartphones and tablets running Android 2.3 Gingerbread and above, and on iPhones and iPads running iOS 6 and above.

With the new Mac Pro, Apple has once against shifted manufacturing of one of its products to the United States. Could other products follow? Even, say, the iPhone?

Foxconn chairman and president Terry Gou has hinted yes, saying that the company is actively looking into the possibility of setting up factories for high-end smartphone and tablet production in America. But how likely is it?

If there are two main areas where Microsoft massively lags behind both Android and Apple it is market share and app availability.

Well, Microsoft has copped to its role as a “distant third” in the former capacity (Windows Phones represent less than a 5 percent share of the overall market), but is the latter something more immediately addressable?

Yes, according to a tweet posted by Windows Phone VP Joe Belfiore — the man responsible for the design and software product definition of Microsoft’s smartphones — who enthusiastically claims that the end of 2014 is going to mark the end of the “app-gap” between Windows Phones, and those available for Android and iOS platforms.

A few weeks ago it was iPads banned from the UK’s No. 10 Downing Street due to spying fears, and now Apple products will start disappearing from the German parliament too.

In latest news from the Samsung vs. Apple patent case, Samsung on Wednesday filed an emergency motion with presiding Judge Lucy Koh to halt Apple’s damages retrial.

Why the halt? Because according to court documents, the US Patent and Trademark Office has suggested that Apple’s “pinch to zoom” patent (which much of the patent trial revolves around) might not actually be valid.

I like Fetchnotes 3, a new and deceptively simple update to the iOS/web app which lets you take, organize and share notes. At first, it looks a lot like Simplenote, with a very plain and simple UI, plus tags and easy sharing. But it’s actually a lot more powerful than that.

Remember back when a button was a button, and not a skeuomorphic touch-screen fake complete with drop shadows and gradients? Me too. Back in the 1980s and beyond, kids had tougher fingers thanks to all the button-pushing that went on, not like the kids of today with their weak twiglets which threaten to snap if they squeeze their in–0line remote’s play/pause “button” too hard.

Which is my way of saying that you can keep your pathetic modern-day children from playing any music by simply loading your iPhone into this retro-tastic iRecorder.

It’s fantastic to be able to swipe up from the bottom of the screen in any app or the home screen to turn Wi-Fi on or off, enable or disable Bluetooth, and the like. Control Center in iOS 7 has really solved some of my biggest issues with iOS in general.

However, there are times when I’m playing a game or using a certain app that I don’t really want the Control Center to pop up when i use the bottom of the screen.

Thankfully, Apple’s given us a way to disable it.

The official Apple Store app is finally available on iPad, more than three years after it made its debut on the iPhone.

It offers almost all of the features you’ve come to expect from the iPhone version, including high-resolution photography that lets you see products in “amazing detail,” the ability to find your nearest Apple store and make Genius bar appointments, and lots more.

Remember that time Cult of Mac reported that Apple’s oft-maligned iOS Maps function steered people the wrong way across Fairbanks Airport Taxiway? If you’re anything like this writer, you probably either chuckled at the egregiousness of the error or else were momentarily aghast, and then went on with the rest of your day.

Well, in the eyes of some what you should have been thinking is: “hey, I could probably sue over that.”

Perhaps it’s better that you didn’t, however, because the class action lawsuit that has been filed against Apple for iOS Maps is a bit of a headscratcher.

If you’re tired of having to watch movies on specific devices, then this Cult of Mac Deals offer is going to set you free! With The MacX DVD Video Converter Pro Pack, you’ll be able to rip and convert movies, DVDs and other videos to a number of platforms. For only $19.99 – a savings of 81% – you can watch almost anything and everything on your iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV and Android devices.

This Cult of Mac Deals offer features an addition to your arsenal that MacGyver would be proud of.

The team at IN1 must’ve had these words in mind when designing this product, because prepared is what you’ll be with this veritable Swiss Army Knife of iPhone cases.
Combining sleek design with multi-tool functionality, The Multi-Tool iPhone 5/5S Case is a modern solution for life’s little emergencies. And Cult of Mac Deals has it for only $35.99 – a savings of 28%!

Word on the street (and by “the street” we mean Tim Cook himself) was that Apple might not have enough iPad Minis to see it through this quarter — with Cult of Mac even opining that, “Good luck getting one of these before Christmas.”

It used to be fairly simple to add e-books (of the epub format) to your iPad or iPhone via your Mac, using iTunes file sharing. You’d simply drag and drop the book into iTunes, connect your iOS device, and sync the non-iBook file via the file sharing system in iTunes, just like any other file supported by apps on your iPad

With the advent of iBooks on the Mac with OS X Mavericks, there is no longer a way to sync epub books in this way. You might be stymied on attempting to get epubs from your Mac to your iPad, but thanks to an intrepid Cult of Mac reader, we all get to learn how to do just that.

Are you a designer? Do you want to become a designer? Have you ever thought about bringing out the creative in you? Now is a great opportunity for you to stack up on some high quality design resources so you can tackle any design wishes you may have with The Mega Design Bundle 2.0.

The Mega Design Bundle 2.0 contains more than 2.5 GB of smooth icons, flashy vector elements, intuitive Photoshop templates, and other essential designer assets for literally pennies on the dollar. And you can get it for only $49.99 during this limited time offer from Cult of Mac Deals.

An official Google Play Music app is finally available on iOS, bringing Google’s All Access music streaming service to your iPhone. Users can listen to millions of tracks on demand and enjoy custom radio with no limits, as well as access to the music they’ve uploaded to Google’s cloud-based storage service.

Deleting emails has long been a fairly simple task in iOS. All you’ve ever needed to do to delete one is swipe to the left to pull up the delete button, or tap on Edit to delete multiple messages. Deleting email is such fun, of course, but there are other things you might want to do with your emails.

In iOS 7, luckily, there’s more…quite literally.

If you’re looking to gain an insightful perspective as to how Apple has become the most valuable brand in the world you’ll get that and so much more with these two genius titles written by Leander Khaney.

Leander has been a technology writer and author for decades and has been following Apple since before Steve Jobs’ return. He was a former managing editor at Wired News and now’s he’s moved onto running his own successful Apple-centric blog – the very one you’re reading right now – Cult of Mac. He’s written these two books to help us all gain a better understanding of how Apple’s dynasty has been created and he does an excellent job at doing so. And now you can get both of them for just $19.57 during this limited time offer from Cult of Mac Deals.

Coffitivity is an app that turns your too-quiet (and frankly pretty creepy) home office into a buzzing coffee shop, only without the jerk who’s hogging the single power outlet all frikkin’ morning after buying one measly coffee. And not even a real coffee. It’s one of those lame-o frappa-latte-chinos or something.

Anyhow, Coffitivity adds a backing track to your office, via a Mac or iOS app.

A lot of fuss has been made about the iPhone’s lack of repairability ever since it debuted in 2007 without *gasp* a removeable battery. Six years of design updates later and the iPhone is still as hard to tinker with as ever, unless of course you work at Apple.

Yesterday, Cult of Mac revealed a few pictures of the new tools Apple created to make iPhone 5s and 5c repairs easier than ever for Geniuses.  Now our tipster is back with a bunch of GIFs of Apple’s fancy new toys in action, straight from Apple’s official iPhone 5s and 5c repair training videos.

Along with detailed animations of the new iPhone 5s and 5c components, the exclusive shots below show the exact methods Apple staff use to repair broken iPhone 5s, thanks to an array of tools created to make the process more efficient, including a new Universal Display Removal Fixture and an iPhone Battery Fixture Apple keeps hidden in the back of Apple Stores.

Want to know how fix your iPhone the Apple way? Study the GIFs below and you’ll be swapping out batteries like a Genius in no time:

Intro

After the recent Everpix shutdown, I moved all my photos to Flickr. If you read my roundup of Everpix alternatives, you’ll know that Flickr wasn’t my first choice, but it turns out that neither is it my only choice. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Everpix was great because it just sucked in all your photos, whether you kept them in iPhoto, on your iPhone, in a weird beardo folder structure on your Mac, or even if you took all of your photos using Instagram. It was far from perfect, but it was the best. And then it went away.

Android may have greater market penetration than ever before, but it also has more defectors than ever. According to new data, in fact, more Android users are migrating to the iPhone than ever before.

At just $40, I can’t help but think that the water resistant Jive is anything more than adequate when it comes to sound, especially as it packs Bluetooth 4, AVRCP (for remote control from your iPhone) and a 500mAh battery (good for four hours). But given its likely use case, this doesn’t really matter. Because the Jive is the modern-day shower radio.

Apple likes to keep its secrets close to the chest, but Cult of Mac has grabbed an exclusive look at some behind the scenes video of Apple iPhone 5s repair processes. A tipster behind the Genius Bar has shown us portions of Apple’s official iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c repair videos that showcase the emphasis Jony Ive and the design team placed on repairability when creating the latest iPhones, as well as the crazy little repair tools Apple uses to ensure quality repairs.

Despite launching to record breaking sales numbers in September, Apple’s iPhone lineup has come under fire again and again for its apparent lack of repairability. Catherine Rampell at the the New York Times went on a bullshit parade two weeks ago claiming Apple tries to make your iPhone break so you have to buy a new one.  Even Apple fans like our pal Kyle Weins, at iFixit,  bemoaned Apple for not making the iPhone 5s more repairable for users.

To consumers, the locked enclosures of the iPhone 5s may seem like a guarded unfixable fortress, but the truth is that the iPhone 5s is one of Apple’s most repairable devices ever, you just have to be a Genius to get the right tools for the operation.

The segments of the 12 training videos we saw provided detailed animations of the iPhone 5s and 5c internal components, as well as guides on how to access and swap six components on the device –  speaker, receiver, vibration motor, iSight camera module, battery, and sim ejector tool.

Here’s a picture from Apple’s training guide of the five specialized tools required to swap out iPhone 5c components: