Apple agreed this week to buy Israel-based PrimeSense for $350 million.
PrimeSense is best known for making the 3D motion-tracking technology inside Microsoft’s Kinect.
Does this mean Apple plans to make its own Kinect? Maybe. But I think Apple may be thinking about something far more interesting.
In this increasingly noisy, digital age – simple is the new style.
That’s what Native Union had in mind with the POP Desk – a handset and custom-designed stand to hold your smartphone. The large, classic style of the handset allows you to make mobile, Skype and other VoIP calls comfortably – like an old-school business pro – while the anti-slip rubberized pad holds your smartphone securely in place. And when you’re done at the office, keep it classy on the move with the CLIC Wooden iPhone case. Individually cut from natural cherry wood and hand-polished – each case is as unique as the owner carrying it.
You can have all that simplicity and style for a fraction of the regular price thanks to this Cult of Mac Deals limited offer – just $64.99.
Readdle, the team behind some of the best productivity apps and utilities for iOS, has slashed 50% off five of its top offerings for Black Friday. The sale includes titles like PDF Expert for iPhone and iPad, Calendars 5, and Printer Pro — all of which are now half price for a limited time.
Yahoo! has released its list of top searches for 2013 and, when it comes to tech, Apple is once again leading the way.
The iPhone had the most searches (the second most searched subject overall), with the iPad making it to fourth place — ahead of PS4 and XBox One — and the iPod to eighth, above the Nokia Lumia and just below the Blackberry.
There are different ways to measure the success of a tech company — thing like how many lucrative patents it’s sitting on, how much money it’s giving back to shareholders, and what its overall market penetration is in whatever area it’s operating in.
Well, there’s another way also: how much do its product launches correlate with a spike rates. You can keep your reports about Apple’s recent financial quarters disappointing Wall Street analysts — as far as San Francisco’s criminal element is concerned, Apple is doing better than it has in years.
When I ordered a Retina iPad mini, I went for the cellular version – and not only because it means I can get online anywhere without draining my iPhone’s battery by tethering. I got it for the GPS, which is pretty fantastic to have when traveling, especially in the (big) pocket-sized mini.
But if you didn’t have the foresight to spend the extra $130 on a cellular, you can now spend that exact same $130 on a dongle that adds GPS through the Lightning port.
If the new iPad Air or Mini with Retina display is on your or a loved one’s list this holiday season – this bundle from the award-winning designers at Just Mobile is a deal that’s too good to pass up.
The Slide iPad stand and the AluPen stylus are winners of nearly a dozen prestigious awards, including Best of Show, Design, and other Category awards from the likes of MacWorld, iF International Forum, Reddot, iLounge, Computex, Spark, and others. And Cult of Mac Deals has them packaged together for just $59.99 for a limited time.
Hatch, the cute virtual pet for iPhone from the makers of Clear, has received its first update just one week after making its App Store debut. The release adds some beautiful wallpapers for your iPhone, introduces some new shop items, and makes a long list of fixes, tweaks, and improvements.
An astonishing 76 percent of new smartphone sales in Japan for the month of October were either iPhone 5s or 5c handsets, according to recent data.
The report comes from a Kantar World Panel, and demonstrates just how far Apple’s share of the Japanese smartphone market has increased over the present quarter.
Just when you thought you had heard every wacky app concept going, here’s another you might not have considered: Facebook for dogs.
Okay, it’s not exactly Facebook, but the free Woof iOS app (from developer Woof Labs) is pretty much that — describing itself as “an ecosystem to bring dog lovers closer to their dogs and local dog communities.”
Imagine that your task list was made up of a bunch of little slips of paper that you can slide around in any order, only these slips can’t blow away. That’s the central metaphor for Gneo, a universal task manager app which starts out looking like the ultra-simple Clear app, but hides a lot of power under the hood.
Using the latest Tweetbot release in bed will be a much more enjoyable experience after today, thanks to the latest update that introduces a brand new night theme. The version 3.2 release also makes it faster to switch between multiple accounts, and allows you to reorder them for your convenience.
Heart not beating quite right? There’s an app for that.
Researchers for medical device company HealthSTATS International — in association with University College London — have patented the software behind what they claim to be the world’s first app to test for erratic heartbeats.
San Francisco resident and Uber user James Alva has taken to social media to complain that not only did the car and driver he ordered using the app not match the description he was given — but also that the driver became both physically and verbally abusive.
Alva summoned an UberX ride (an app which connects passengers to third-party drivers) using his iPhone after leaving a bar in the early hours of Sunday. At this point the notification on his phone told him that the driver sent would arrive in a silver Toyota Prius.
A short time later, Alva reports that a blue Prius showing a different license plate turned up — along with what he thought to be a different driver.
Rockstar Games announced this morning that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will be making its way to iOS device next month after originally being released for the PS2 back in 2004.
Not only is Rockstar porting the game to iOS, but the company says it’s also adding support for Made for iOS controllers on iOS 7, along with the addition of brand new touch controls and contextual control options that only display as you need them.
America’s favorite shopping day is almost here and what better way to prepare your customers for the slaughters of Black Friday than a juicy new app update? Target has released a free update for its iPhone app that finally brings an iOS 7-friendly UI to the retailer’s app.
Included among the new features is an improved Shopping List that allows users to build lists faster with typeahead results and shows which items on your list are on sale. The new What’s In Store feature shows shoppers which products are trending along with popular Cartwheel offers and recipes. Target has also improved its Find feature with more accurate maps, but unless you live in one of the beta areas you’ll have to wait before your local store map is available.
Here are the full release notes:
Hong Kong-based Biel Crystal Manufactory Ltd — a company that makes iPhone screens for Apple — is violating workers’ rights at its Chinese factories, according to a rights group.
The Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior alleges that Biel Crystal demands that employees work 11-hour shifts, 7 days per week, with just one day off every month.
Infinity Blade came out nearly three years ago, but even though its been one of the most successful iOS games ever thanks to its impressive graphics and rich gameplay, Chair has only made the game available for free once, but for a limited time the company is giving away the game on the App Store starting today.
When the topic of Apple expanding into wearable computing comes up, few people are likely thinking that a logical starting point is a new hearing aid.
But according to numerous reports, that is exactly the direction Apple is heading in. The Danish-based, fourth-largest hearing aid manufacturer in the world has been collaborating with Apple to develop a device, called the LiNX, that will allow users to stream voice and music from their iOS devices without the need for an intermediary device.
It would be next to impossible to ever label an iPhone thief “thoughtful” — but a recent story coming out of China took a turn for the strange when the thief in question painstakingly wrote out eleven pages of contact details and sent them to the owner of the iPhone he had pickpocketed.
There are two things that I love about this iPhone abacus case. One is that it’s an actual working abacus. The second is that I learned that you can stain and dye 3-D-printed plastic as if it were wood or leather.
Thinking of making the jump between platforms?
Well, Google chairman Eric Schmidt is happy to ease the transition — publishing a 900-word guide on “Converting to Android from iPhone”.
With this Cult of Mac Deals offer, you can turn your living room into a war-zone with this iPhone-controlled, missile-firing helicopter.
Forget toy remotes – you control this hovering hellion with your iPhone, iPod Touch, or
iPad! Just download the free app, plug the transmitter into your headphone jack, and take flight. Grab one of these for just $49.95 – a savings of 28% – and make it a holiday the tech-lover in your life will never forget.
Apple and a 12.9-inch iPad; the first iOS 7 game controller is long overdue; Retina iPad Minis are almost perfect; strategies to backup all those iPhone photos you take; and Adam Christianson from the Maccast podcast joins us on this time on The CultCast!
Have a few laughs and get caught up on each week’s best Apple stories. Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below adventure begin.
One of the newer features of iOS 7 is in the App Store. No, I’m not talking about the Wish List feature, which is pretty slick, but the “near me” function of the App Store. It’s a pretty cool thing to play with when you’re traveling, if nothing else.
You can get a neat little list of the hot apps of other people in your general area with this cool little feature, and I did so on my current trip to Hawaii, just to see what people were downloading here in the beautiful city of Honolulu.
You can see my results above, and then try it on your own.