iPhone - page 309

Imagine if your took the ultimate hippy artifact (apart from the roach clip, I guess), and combined it with the ultimate must-have hi-tech accessory. That’s right: the beanbag chair meets the microfiber cloth.

Now, further imagine that you shrunk the result, and added some fabric designs that would be more at home on a corporate robot’s necktie than on a filthy 60s dropout’s cheap furniture.

Now, behold the result of your crazed imagination: the Toddy Wedge, (not to be confused with the “Todd Wedgie, which was an unfortunate schoolyard event that led directly to the laugh-a-minute movies Welcome to the Dollhouse and Happiness)

The Genius Bar is a great way to get help and support for the problems you’re having with your Mac and iOS devices. The problem is, with only 375 Apple stores worldwide, you usually need to live close to a big city to be close to a Genius Bar. But that’s no longer the case, because you can now speak to am Apple specialist from the comfort of your own home, via the company’s online store.

For a company that’s wanting to “sell against the iPhone,” T-Mobile still wants whatever business it can get from unlocked iPhone owners. Earlier today we told you about T-Mobile’s new microSIM kits that will easily unlock an iPhone 4/4S to run on its GSM network.

It appears that T-Mobile is also readying flyers that say “Bring Your iPhone to T-Mobile for BIG SAVINGS!” But can T-Mobile’s network really support iPhone users on 3G and eventually 4G speeds?

These days, most of us are caught in an odd transition from paper to digital documents. Most of us create documents on our Macs, but also need to deal with a ton of actual dead-tree paperwork on a daily basis.

There are a bunch of optical character recognition (OCR) apps out there for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad of varying quality and interface design. Quick Reader is one of the less expensive ones, at $0.99, so might be worth a try if your budget is tight.

While Samsung has been battling with Apple in the U.S., Motorola has been trying to win a few court cases of their own against Apple over in Germany. The two sides have mostly been arguing over some standard-essential patents that Apple needs for the iPhone to work.

Until now, Motorola has refused to license the patents to Apple at a fair price, but a recent court filing shows that Motorola has declared a ceasefire and will now license some, if not all, of their standard-essential patents to Apple.

What does it take to become an Apple Genius? You’d think the biggest requirement would be a lot of technical knowledge, but really it’s empathy and knowing how to talk to people. Geniuses are the face of the company when customers are the most pissed off at Apple, so great customer service skills are key.

Gizmodo just unearthed Apple’s official Genius Training Student Workbook and it’s oozing with secrets, like words a Genius can’t use to describe a problem.

It isn’t too difficult to understand why the jury involved in the Apple versus Samsung case made the verdict it did last Friday, awarding Apple a landslide victory and more than $1 billion in damages. But what isn’t clear is how the jury came to its decision. Thanks to Jury Foreman Vel Hogan, we now have a fascinating insight into what it was like to be part of that panel.

In his first TV appearance since the billion dollar patent trial came to an end, Hogan reveals how he made up his own mind, how the jury decided on the damages Samsung must pay Apple, whether feelings and emotions influenced the jury’s decision, and more.

No one likes turning off their portable electronics on a flight during takeoff and landing, especially if they’re as harmless as an iPod or an e-reader. And the rule if often the subject of debate as we all become more reliant on these devices on a daily basis.

Thankfully, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is now ready to reconsider the rule, and it’s asking passengers, flight attendants, airlines, and the makers of electronic devices for their opinion. Tell the FAA you think the rule is silly and you could help towards getting it abolished.

If you’re a T-Mobile customer who was hoping that the iPhone 5 would be the first iPhone to gain official support for your carrier, then look away now. A leaked T-Mobile memo reveals the company is instructing its staff to sell “against the iPhone” from September 21, and it looks like they’ll be trained to help customers choose alternative smartphones instead.

Dolphin is one of the best third-party browsers you’ll find on iOS, and it just got even better on the iPhone, thanks to a new design and user interface, new features, and lots of improvements in version 6.0.

Spotify’s official iOS app has received a new update that introduces a number of new features and improvements. In addition to playlist sorting on the iPad, Spotify promises “friendlier” login for first-time users on iPhone, a new settings menu that’s now arranged by category, faster radio, and more.

You’ve read plenty of rumors surrounding the iPhone 5 on Cult of Mac by now, but what about the big picture?

Our friends at Nowhereelse.fr have put together a handy infographic detailing all of the marquee iPhone 5 rumors and the likelihood of each one actually making its way into the phone next month. Some big tech and Apple blogs were consulted for the making of this graphic, including Cult of Mac. Here’s the results:

Fan favorite (and BAFTA award-winning) point and click adventure game series Broken Sword is getting a sequel, called The Serpent’s Curse, and it’s being funded in part via Kickstarter. It’s a new adventure for Mac (and PC) starring series regulars George and Nico being developed by series creator, Charles Cecil, and his company Revolution Software.

Like many federal agencies, the Department of Veterans Affairs has embarked on the journey of integrating iPhones and iPads as mobile solutions. The agency currently has 20,000 mobile devices that includes iPhones and iPads along with some BlackBerries and a small number of Android devices. Despite the range of devices, the VA has been very active in trying to eliminate mobile data breaches and, according to the VA’s director of Mobile and Security Assurance Donald Kachman, the agency’s campaign has been extremely successful.

Kachman credits encryption technologies with as a major factor in that success – 99% of all VA data is now secured around the clock on mobile devices and desktop PCs. The security approach is one that can be a model for any organization.

Apple just laid a royal beat down on Samsung in the U.S. court system over patent infringement. You’d easily think that the two companies are huge enemies that would gladly rip out each other’s hearts and drive over them with a steamroller.

Truth is, even though they’re enemies in the smartphone market, Apple needs Samsung’s components to build iPhones and iPads, and Samsung needs Apple to keep buying their parts to make money. Samsung products comprise 26 percent of the component cost of the iPhone, so to keep their smartphone and component manufacturing businesses separate, Samsung has created a strict ‘Internal Firewall’ to try to avoid conflicts.

There are a ton of ways to get fit and lose weight. And there are even more stupid books and fad diets that may or may not help you to slim down and get healthier. But there are really only two things you need to do: eat less and do more.

Of course, it isn’t easy. Luckily, those of a certain nerdy bent will find all the motivation they need in gadgets and apps. I have been doing just that for the past few months, and I thought I’d write a little about how to get thinner and fitter by using your iPhone.

Almost all of your friends probably own smartphones by now. If they don’t own an iPhone they probably have an Android phone, which is fine because it seems like everyone nowdays could use a personal computer in their pocket.

Smartphone adaption rates have been ridiculously high in the US and other companies over the past five-years. Flurry, a mobile application analytics company, decided they wanted to know just how fast iOS and Android devices are growing, so they compiled some data and found that the smartphone revolution is bigger than any other digital revolution in history.

While bring your own device (BYOD) programs that encourage employees to use their personal iPhones, iPads, and other devices in the office increases productivity and employee satisfaction, the trend is also turning those employees into workaholics. That’s not entirely a new realization – we’ve covered the potential impact of the BYOD trend on the work/life balance before (including a recent study that showed that BYOD programs actually improve that balance for IT professionals).

The latest research on BYOD’s impact on workers shows two additional insights – a significant number of employees are footing the bill (sometimes a very big bill)  for mobile data service while on the road for work.

You’re probably going to see a lot of stories like this in the coming weeks. Apple stock opened at a record $680 a share this morning, on the first day of trading following the Cupertino company’s massive victory over Samsung on Friday. This surpasses its previous record of $674.88 a share, which was hit last Tuesday, August 21, and it pushes Apple’s market capitalization to a new high of $637 billion.

Got a spare five minutes? Want to do something fun. Then take a quick look at Gutenberg Variations, a free iPhone app which takes your typed text and turns it onto sheet music. And then plays it.

Here’s an interesting theory from Macotakara, riffing on photos highlighted by Apple.pro last week: the square chip seen at the top of the next iPhone, to the right of the built-in iSight camera, could be an NFC chip. In fact, it looks exactly the same size as one.

If you needed any more confirmation that the next iPhone is launching during the second half of September, look no further. Verizon has put a vacation blackout in place for its employees starting September 21st, and now TechCrunch is reporting that AT&T has the same blackout in place from September 21st to the 30th.

Apple is expected to announce the next iPhone on September 12th with pre-orders beginning on the same day. In-store availability would then begin the next Friday, September 21st.

Kicking off this week’s must-have apps roundup is a fantastic text editor called Drafts, which has quickly become my favorite on iOS. We’ve also included a great alternative music app called Ecoute; the latest Facebook app, which has been rewritten from the ground up; and a third-party web browser that prides itself on being super speedy.

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For the past several months it’s been thought that Apple will unveil the next iPhone and rumored iPad mini in September. This past week it was suggested that Apple would instead hold two separate events for each product, with the first taking place on September 12th and the second in October.

Today a new report from the reliable AllThingsD “confirms” that Apple will indeed hold a separate iPad mini announcement in October following the release of the new iPhone.

Apple’s critics generously assign a variety of motives to Apple for filing lawsuits.

Apple sues because it wants to control the market, overcharge for its products, exclude competitors from the market or punish competitors for daring to not think different. It’s all part of Apple’s “quest for global tech domination.

But these aren’t actual motives. These are appeals to emotion. They’re legitimate perspectives, but expressed to negatively encapsulate spectacularly complex technical, legal and ethical issues into sound bites that make you want to agree with the author that Apple is bad and wrong.

Apple has only one motive for patent lawsuits, and I’m going to tell you what that motive is.