iPhone - page 237

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We’re offering a complete e-learning course that’ll show you how to create iOS games from the ground up with absolutely no programming required. In this course you’ll learn how to make simple games using Stencyl (a free iOS game development platform) that you can make money from. And we’ve got this course available to Cult of Mac readers for only $79 – a savings of $420!

Look, I’m not gonna lie to you—we get weird on this week’s CultCast. But before the wheels fall off completely, we do work in some great Apple news stories and topics such as: why iPhone 5S could have two flashes; how the iOS game controller could change everything; new Thunderbolt displays on the way; the guy who sold the iPhone 4 prototype recounts the tale; iOS 7 gets shinier in beta 2; and Tim Cook gets a back massage with Erfon after brunch. Plus, if you’re wondering how to scan on iPhone 15, there’s a powerful tool that makes scanning documents seamless. Check out this guide on the best iPhone scanning app to learn more.

Have a few laughs and get caught up on this 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 and let the audio adventure begin.

Show notes up next.

Apple is stil the top smartphone maker in the U.S. according to the latest quarterly report from comScore. While HTC, Motorola, and LTG continued to lose marketshare in the U.S. over the last three months, Apple and Samsung have continued to outpace the competition.

As of May 2013, comScore found that the iPhone now accounts for 39.2% of the U.S. smartphone marketshare. Even though Apple has the lead in hardware, Android is still the top ranking smartphone platform in the U.S. with 52.4 percent market share.

Here’s how Apple stacks up against the competition:

An image of what is claimed to be a bunch of new batteries for the iPhone 5S on an assembly line has surfaced today. If it is genuine, it confirms the iPhone 5S will be battery-powered like its predecessors, and it debunks rumors that have claimed Apple will turn to more traditional energy means such as coal and paraffin.

We had expected BlackBerry Messenger to make its debut on Android and iOS on June 27 thanks to T-Mobile U.K., but when it became apparent that the carrier’s announcement was incorrect, we started to wonder just how long BlackBerry would keep us waiting.

But during a quarterly earnings call this morning, CEO Thorsten Heins again reiterated the company’s plan to make BBM a cross-platform service “before the end of the summer.”

While the iPhone has been slowly making its way to carriers all over the world since its release in 2007, there are still a number of major operators that are yet to offer it. One of those is China Mobile, the world’s largest carrier with over 800 million subscribers; and another is DoCoMo, a Japanese carrier that serves almost half of the country’s mobile market.

But DoCoMo isn’t at all concerned, even though it’s losing customers to other carriers that do offer Apple’s device. A company executive has acknowledged that the iPhone is an “attractive” device, but points out that it also comes with some disadvantages, and insists that the latest Android-powered offerings are just as good.

You can already check in to a flight online, so why can’t you check your luggage? With a new luggage tag about to be trialed by British Airways, you can. And you can do it with your smartphone.

This is the Handleband. It’s a band for your handlebars, but it’s also a great word to roll around your mouth – handleband… handleband – rattling it through your teeth and wrapping it around your tongue. Haaaandlebaaaand.

In the right hands, the iPhone Makes a great camera. And in the wrong hands, even the best DSLR or rangefinder will spit out crap. This is the truth behind the SunTimes/DarkTimes Tumblr, a blog which highlights the terrible photos that the Chicago Sun Times is publishing ever since it fired all its photographers and let the writers snap pictures with their iPhones.

The result is clearly shown above.

Apple may or may not be making a smartwatch, but that’s not stopping its partner, Hon Hai Precision Industry – better known by it’s trading name, Foxconn – from making an iPhone compatible watch of its own.

Hon Hai unveiled it’s first smartwatch today at a shareholders meeting. The device can connect wirelessly to an iPhone and provides data on users’ vitals, such as heartbeat and respiration. The smartwatch can even check phone calls and Facebook posts.

Oh, and remember how the iPhone 5S might be getting a fingerprint sensor? Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou said they’re working to add that to their smartwatch in the future along with some other health features.

Instagram’s new video feature has taken off like wild fire as more than 5 million clips were uploaded in the first 24 hours alone. Many of those new 15-second Instagram videos are all over Twitter, but depending on the Twitter client you’re using, you might not be able to view them.

Tapbots announced today that it has added Instagram video support to its popular Twitter app, Tweetbot. The update is available on both the iPad and iPhone apps which run $2.99 a piece in the App Store.

Source: iTunes

“Wow, this is cool.” That was my first thought when I saw CamRanger controlling a full-size DSLR for the first time, then wirelessly beaming picture previews to an iPad 15 feet away.

From ISO, to shutter, to aperture, white balance—-even live view and touch-to-focus—-the CamRanger gives you amazing control of any compatible DSLR from your iPad or iPhone. All it takes to get the magic going, is the tiny CamRanger unit and their free iOS app.

The Cult of Mac team used Glassboard to help coordinate our reporting efforts at this year’s CES back in January. It was quick, simple, tied us all together and made the show a little less crazy.

This time around, maybe we’ll dump Glassboard for Anchor, released today. It’s an app with the same basic idea — hanging out and communicating with all your teammates through your iPhone — but with a heavy slant toward fun. And if anything is a great antidote for crazy, it’s fun.

There’s a new hacked carrier update available for iPhones running on AT&T, which delivers HD Voice, support for Release 7 HSDPA speeds on the iPhone 4S, and a number of other improvements. As always, you don’t even need a jailbroken iPhone to install it.

The new Google Hangouts app for iOS has received its first update since making its App Store debut back in May. The release adds a number of new features, including the ability to invite friends via SMS and click and share links, plus bug fixes and improvements.

Mailbox, the popular third-party Gmail client for iOS, has received yet more new features in its latest update. iPhone users can now take advantage of the new landscape mode for a wider look at their mail, and there’s now support for Gmail’s “send as” aliases.

We have high hopes for PopCap’s long anticipated sequel to Plants vs Zombies, but it looks like gamers will have to wait a little while longer before the game hits the App Store.

PopCap announced today that Plants vs Zombies 2 has been delayed and will miss its targeted launch date of July 18th. The launch date will be pushed back to some date “later this summer” according to the game’s Twitter feed.

Plants vs. Zombies 2, originally slated for a July 18th release, will now be released later in the summer. Stay tuned for more details.

— Plnts vs. Zmbies (@PlantsvsZombies) June 26, 2013

It’s been a stagnant year so far for new Apple product announcements, and Foxconn, Apple’s biggest manufacturing partner, is starting to feel the pitch: sales are down 12.6 this year, against a target of 15% growth. And in response, Foxconn’s looking to become a lot less dependent upon Apple, who generated 60 percent of the company’s 2012 $100 billion in revenues.

The Apple online store has expanded its presence in Europe by opening up in Russia for the first time. Apple products were previously available only through third-party resellers, but those in Moscow and Saint Petersburg can now buy iPhones, iPads, Macs, and more directly from Apple.

There are countless third-party apps that allow you to scan QR codes and Data Matrixes on your iPhone, but wouldn’t it be easier if you could read them inside the built-in Camera app? Well, with a new tweak for jailbroken iOS devices called Decode Camera, you can.

Apple has added a new promotional page to its website for iOS 7, targeting business users who will be using iPhones and iPads in a professional capacity. “iOS 7 offers more advanced ways to deploy devices and deliver a great user experience for your employees,” the Cupertino company says, before highlighting the many ways in which iOS 7 can benefit business users.

One of the features I’ve been most looking forward to in OS X Mavericks is the ability to send directions from my Mac to my iPhone, to be able to take my directions on the go, even when I’m searching on my Mac. I hate having to go to my iPhone (or iPad) and re-enter the starting and ending addresses again; I just did that on my Mac!

While you still can’t do that with Google directions, you can now send directions from OS X Mavericks Maps right to your iOS Maps. Here’s how.

iTunes U hasn’t been redesigned to mesh well with iOS 7 just yet, but Apple is still putting out a few feature updates for its educational app.

Apple released a new version of iTunes U in the App Store today that adds pull to refresh, improved language support, bug fixes and more. The new update is available in the App Store for free.

Here are the release notes:

I shall assume that you all make some use of IFTTT, a.k.a. The Glue of the Internet. IFTTT (If This Then That) grabs things from various internet services and sends them to other services. Thus you can have all your Instagram photos sent to Flickr, or get a Boxcar push notification if its going to rain, or, or…

And IFTTT just added a couple of new services to the mix — Feedly, 500px and JetSetMe — plus one huge update to Gmail: support for attachments.

One of the unsung advantages of the iPhone’s crazy popularity is that you can almost always find a charger for it, whether from the lost property box at a hotel or from the guy at the next desk in your office.

But now that Lightning exists, things are more complicated, and a lot of the old 30-pin cables people were willing to lend out are now useless. So how about carrying your own? That’s the idea behind the Nomad cable, a three-inch stub which attaches to your keychain.