When Apple unveiled iMessage, one of the first thoughts for many IT professionals and business users was that Apple had come up with a secure messaging platform that could rival RIM’s BlackBerry Messenger. While iMessage has a lot going for it as a secure messaging platform, there are still some reasons that it may not be an ideal business solution.
If you’re going to be in the Los Angeles area this week, you should really check out The LA Mobile Arts Festival. Tons of artists will be at Santa Monica Art Studios celebrating iPhoneography and the underground mobile arts movement with tons and tons of cool art installations that were all made with an iPhone.
The festival contains the largest ever exhibit of iPhoneography art, and will be open from August 18th-August 25th. The exhibit looks really awesome, and the organizers even sent Cult of Mac a sneak peak at some of the stuff you can find at the festival.
Here are just 12 of the many amazing iPhoneography works you can see at the festival:
Square’s announcement of its partnership with Starbucks and the launch of new mobile payment company by several key retail and service chains were signs that the mobile payment industry and digital wallet concept is big business. Late last week, however, there was more news on the mobile payments front that proves that the race is far from over – one could even say that it’s barely started.
In a move that could make Square’s deal with Starbucks seem small and limited, Reuters reports that PayPal may soon be expanding its brand of mobile payments to include on the biggest fast food chains on the planet – McDonald’s. PayPal is currently testing a payment system in 30 McDonald’s locations in France. The company demoed the technology earlier this year.
Camalapse is short for “camel prolapse,” although oddly it has nothing to do with either ungulate mammals or slipping organs. Instead, the Camalapse is a clockwork stand for your camera which takes 360˚ time-lapse sequences.
Here’s what we know. We know that the next iPhone and the forthcoming iPad mini will have smaller dock connectors. We also know that these smaller dock connectors will require Apple to sell adapters so that the next iPhone and iPad can interact with the existing ecosystem of 30-pin accessories out there.
The big question is, what will these adapters look like? Over at Metablog, they’ve got some interesting thoughts.
The iPhone has been an incredible success for Apple. So much more of a success than we all predicted when it was unveiled back in 2007. It’s the hottest smartphone on the planet, and at five years old, it’s now bigger than Microsoft’s entire business put together. With $22.7 billion in sales last quarter, the smartphone outsold everything Apple’s biggest rival has to offer.
It’s not difficult to open up the Settings app and activate or deactivate things like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or Airplane Mode. But it could be a whole lot quicker. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have an icon on your home screen that allows you to toggle these things instantly — without having to navigate the Settings app? Thanks to IconToggles, you can.
Kicking off this week’s must-have apps roundup is a brand new update to Instagram — the world’s most popular photo sharing service — that introduces an improved user interface and new features. We’ve also got a new Food Network app that every foodie should have, the official WWE app for wrestling fans, and a great educational app for the iPad that promises to teach your little ones how to write capital letters quickly and efficiently.
Yesterday a nasty iPhone SMS spoofing hack was detailed by iOS hacker pod2g. Someone with malicious intent could theoretically change the reply-to number in a SMS message without your knowledge. For instance, you could receive a SMS from a number pretending to be your bank. If you replied with a password or other sensitive data, your security would be compromised. The hack also allows for someone to send a completely spoofed message from a random number.
This bug has been on the iPhone for years and is still present in the iOS 6 beta. Apple today released an official statement addressing the issue.
We’ve seen multiple iPhone 5 part leaks in the months leading up to Apple’s rumored September 12th announcement, and new tidbits continue to surface as the event draws near. Today more alleged components have hit the internet, including a fully assembled front panel for the next iPhone.
The panel shows a taller display with a centered FaceTime camera above the earpiece.
When Apple announced its Facetime two years ago, it looked like an appealing, easy-to-use feature that might finally make video chat mainstream and routine.
The best thing about Facetime has always been its seamless integration into Apple’s Phone and Contacts apps. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much the only good thing about it.
From the beginning, Facetime has been almost unusable because of limitations. Not small limitations, enormous ones. Here’s what I’m talking about.
Kicking off this week’s must-have games roundup is a new game from Zynga that will blow your mind. It’s called Horn, and it’s a third-person action game with incredible, console-quality visuals and great gameplay. That’s accompanied by Mad Skills BMX from the creators of Mad Skills Motocross; Jack Lumber, the first game from the SEGA Alliance; Cafeteria Nipponica from Kairosoft, and more. Look out for the awesome new platformer from Ravenous Games, creators of the award-winning League of Evil.
We’ve seen plenty of iPhone 5 leaked parts in recent weeks, and Apple is expected to host a huge media event next month revolving around all things iOS. On the iPad mini front, certain parts have started surfacing more recently, although we have yet to see the device’s rumored 7.85-inch display in all of its glory.
New leaked parts for what would allegedly be a smaller iPad have been released today, and a high-res shot of the dock connector reveals the smaller 8-pin design that’s also rumored to appear in the next iPhone.
A handful of studies recently have looked at the impact of the iPhone, iPad, and other mobile devices used for both work and personal pursuits is having on the work/life balance for professionals across a range of industries. One recent study showed mobile devices have contributed to the average American working seven hours each week, the equivalent of a full work day, out of the office and after hours. Another pointed how that many of us will work while on vacation thanks to our mobile devices.
For one segment of the workforce, however, iPhones, iPads, and Android devices and their ubiquitous connectivity have actually improved the work/life balance. That group is salaried IT professionals.
Yesterday, Instagram launched version 3.0 of their iOS and Android app. Along with some new UI improvements, the coolest thing about the update is the new Photo Maps feature which allows users to organize photos via geo-location data to provide more interesting narratives for their followers.
The new Photo Maps feature is great, but it comes with some privacy concerns. Private user photos that are added to a Photo Map are viewable to any Android Instagram user thanks to a bug in the 3.0 update.
When the burglar who robbed Steve Jobs’ house walked out with jewelry, computers, and Steve’s old wallet, I doubt he could have imagined one of his heisted Macs would call in the coppers. But he learned that you don’t mess with a Mountain Lion. We’ll tell you the tale on our all-new CultCast—and don’t worry—all mock turtlenecks have been returned to their proper place.
We talk rumor control, iPhone 5 design, the Olympics, and more. Then, by popular request, it’s a battle of the browsers! We’ll tell you which web-ware we love the most, and why Apple’s own app still has a big issue to fix.
Subscribe to The CultCast now on iTunes, or easily stream new episodes right on your iPhone or iPad with Apple’s newly updated and freshly debugged Podcasts App.
Show notes ahead!
Back in February, I told you about an iPhone case from a company called cellhelmet that comes with one major advantage: If your iPhone breaks while it’s inside the case, cellhelmet will fix or replace it for free. Now the company is expanding, and it’s about to launch a new line of screen protectors that offer a similar guarantee. If your iOS device’s screen gets scratched while wearing one, cellhelmet will replace the display.
Apple has been named in a California lawsuit filed by EPL Holdings for allegedly infringing a patent that covers audio and video playback at varying speeds. The filing reports that EPL met with Apple back 2002 to discuss licensing over the patents it had developed. But the Cupertino company is alleged to have used the technology anyway without reaching a licensing deal.
It used to be that bike handlebars were for holding on to, and for telling your bike just which direction you wanted it to go. You might add a bell, or wrap around some fancy colorful bar-tape, but that was the limit of directional decoration.
Now there are so many accessories that can be clamped and clipped to the bars that touring cyclists even add an extra stumpy bar to their stems just for bags, computers and lamps. And now we can add a tripod mount to that list.
Apple stock hit an all-time high of $636.64 per share on Thursday, and today that price continues to rise. The last time Apple jumped above $630 a share was back in April, right before its share price began a six-week decline that knocked $115 off the price — and $100 billion off Apple’s market cap — when it ended on May 18.
It’s unlikely we’ll see a repeat of that now, however. According to one analyst, investors are so keen to plough their money into Apple before the iPhone 5 sends share prices rocketing that there’s no sign of those prices dropping anytime soon.
Here’s an awesome little jailbreak tweak that you might find incredibly useful. It’s called Turn to Hangup, and as its name suggests, it instantly dismisses incoming calls when you place your iPhone on its face.
iOS hacker and security researcher Pod2g has uncovered a major SMS security flaw with the iPhone that could lead to text message spoofing. The problem is with the way in which the iPhone handles text messages, and it’s present in the latest version of iOS — including the iOS 6 beta 4 release. However, Pod2g insists he’s pleading with Apple to get it fixed.
Well-known video game developer and publisher, Sega, is taking a cue from publishers like Chillingo and helping indie game studios find their footing in an uncertain market.
The initiative, called the Sega Alliance, will assist independent developers with creative consultation, marketing, production, localization, and distribution tasks. The first indie studio to get this special support from Sega is Owlchemy Labs, the makers of Smuggle Truck and Snuggle Truck for iOS, Mac, and PC.
Here in the US, if you’re in the military or work in aviation, you might actually use what most of the rest of the world thinks of as standard, 24-hour time. While it will confuse all your US-living friends and relatives when they ask for the time and you show them your iOS device’s lock screen, that’s their issue, right? You, at least, will have the joy of knowing that you are fully prepared for the type of time tracking that most people around the globe use.
The default iOS clock in the US is a 12-hour clock, with AM and PM appended to the numbers to denote morning or evening. The other, more standard way of representing the time is with the 24-hour clock, in which any time after 12:00 is the logical 13:00, 14:00, and so on. It’s really easy to set on your iPhone or other iOS device.
Walk into your local AT&T, Verizon or Sprint store and ask to look at the latest and greatest smartphone. A store employee will show you the Samsung Galaxy lll and other Android phones from the likes of HTC and Motorola. You may be shown a Windows Phone like the Nokia Lumia 900. At Verizon, you’re definitely going to be shown about the Motorola DROID RAZR 4G.
You won’t get pitched the iPhone as easily. In fact, many walk into a store with the plan of buying an iPhone and come out with the latest Android phone in hand.
Why? Employees and customers we’ve spoken to agree that sales reps from all three big carriers discriminate against the iPhone on the store floor, but it’s not a conspiracy: profit margins and device-specific incentives pressure employees to intentionally steer customers away.