Described simply, the Apogee Jam ($99) is a just little gadget that lets you plug your guitar into your Mac, iPhone, or iPad. But in this pairing of instrument and iDevice, the Jam unlocks a wonderful world of musical possibility that is nothing short of magical.
Yesterday, we covered a report that asked whether or not most people really want the option to bring their own technology into the office. That report showed that despite the media hype and the broad interest that CIOs and IT leaders are showing in BYOD programs, it may only be one out of every five employees that’s clamoring for the right to bring their personal iPad or iPhone into the office.
If that’s the case, why are so many users hesitant or even hostile to the BYOD model?
With millions of dollars pledged to all kinds of projects every week, it’s no wonder that Kickstarter has become one of the most popular funding sources for getting a new product off the ground. The process is simple: Start a project, spread the word, then — if your idea is a good one — watch the pledges roll in.
If you’re a budding entrepreneur with a great idea for a Mac or iOS accessory, or even an app or game, then Kickstarter could be the fastest and most effective route to success. Not only is it a great source of funding, but it also helps you establish just how popular your product will be.
Here at Cult of Mac we’ve stumbled across a handful of really outstanding devices that wouldn’t be around if it wasn’t for Kickstarter. But it’s not as easy as it sounds. While creating your project may be pretty straightforward, ensuring it succeeds is hard work.
To help you out, we’ve spoken to a couple of companies who recently used Kickstarter to launch their latest products, and they’ve given us some feedback and a few tips on how to ensure your Kickstarter project is a success.
Foxconn, the company that assembles almost all of Apple’s devices —- plus plenty more for the likes of Amazon, Dell, Microsoft, and Sony —- has confirmed today that it has secured a 46.5% stake in Sharp’s giant LCD plant in Sakai, Japan. The deal is expected to help Sharp improve its performance, and could make low-energy IGZO displays a possibility for future iPads
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For some iPhone 4S users, Siri is a novelty that quickly wears off within a week or two of unwrapping the handset. But believe it or not, 87% of iPhone 4S users are still using the intelligent assistant at least once a month, according to a new study. Not many of them are using it to its full potential, however.
BYOD is certainly one of the biggest technology buzzwords right now. The concept of users supplying their own iPad, iPhone, or even their own MacBook can create challenges for IT, but it can also provides advantages. Users choosing the devices and apps that they feel most comfortable and productive using is one. Businesses not needing to pay for mobile devices themselves or plans to support them is another.
One of the basic assumptions when it comes to considering, testing, and implementing a BYOD program is that the ability to bring personal tools into the workplace is something that users ultimately want and think will improve their work. The rest of the discussion, including practical issues like device or data management and the range of devices to be support, is predicated on this core assumption that BYOD is desirable on the part of users.
But what if that isn’t really the case? According to a report based on research in Australia and New Zealand, that may not be the case and it may actually be a form of peer pressure driving the BYOD revolution more than pressure from users.
Good battery life is essential for a mobile device to succeed in the post-PC era, and Apple’s iOS devices continue to pack upgraded internals and improved battery technology into every product iteration. iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users can use a handful of tips and tricks for conserving precious battery on the go. Many of the tips are pretty basic, but every little bit counts when you’re trying to make it through the day on one charge.
Here’s a roundup of tips and tricks for saving battery life on your favorite iOS device:
Popular multitasking tweak CardSwitcher has been updated to version 2.0 in Cydia for iOS 5. If you remember Palm and the webOS platform, the look and feel of CardSwitcher will be very familiar. For jailbroken iPhones, this slick tweak brings the card-like multitasking environment of webOS to iOS.
If you want a change of pace from the tiny app switcher Apple has implemented when you double tap your Home button, CardSwitcher 2.0 is something you want to consider. There’s also an included multitasking interface that iPad users will enjoy.
One of the big fears CIOs and IT staffers have about the consumerization of IT and BYOD trends is that mobile devices like the iPad and iPhone combined with personal cloud services like iCloud, Google Docs, and Dropbox make it very easy for confidential business data to leave the office and the company network.While this is a definite fear for IT staff, how do most knowledge workers view the risk and the consequences of such so-called data sprawl?
According to a recent study, four out of five workers rank removing confidential data from the office as an offense that should get a person fired and yet 90% believe that it happens on a regular basis.
Apple warned the iOS development community last August that it would start rejecting applications submitted to the App Store for accessing a user’s unique identifier (UDID). In case you didn’t know, every iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad possesses a unique alphanumeric string used for registration and tracking.
Amid privacy concerns from the U.S. Congress and other groups regarding how apps use an iOS device’s personal info, Apple has decided to start enforcing its new policy in the App Store.
UPDATE: We’ve chosen our winners and here they are: Tamer Rashdan, Bryan Salazar, Maria Deleon, Werner Pretorius. Contact us at [email protected] to get your redemption codes. Congratulations to our winners and thanks to all who entered!
You’ve been putting together presentations, but they’re just not “wowing” you — or your audience. Slidevana (which works with Keynote for Mac, iPad and iPhone) will give you that edge. And Cult of Mac Deals is going to give away 4 copies of this stellar slide deck creator!
That’s right — Cult of Mac Deals is giving away 4 copies of Slidevana to our readers. Slidevana allows you to spend less time making the slides for your presentation so that you can spend more time on what you should be spending it on: Working on conveying your message. You can learn all about Slidevana by checking out our latest post on the app.
If you’re selling, giving away, or scrapping an old iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you’re likely to plug it into iTunes and hit the restore button to remove all of your personal content and reset the device’s software back to factory settings. But did you know that you can do all that without iTunes?
Here’s how to reset your iOS device and remove all of its content and settings without iTunes.
I love getting to review products from Just Mobile because I know they will always have excellent build quality. The Highway car charger for the iPhone is no exception. At about $35, the Highway isn’t exactly price sensitive. You’ll be able to find a multitude of cheaper solutions at your local Walmart, but you won’t find anything quite as luxurious.
Picture this: You’re at the park, playing with your dog, and an overwhelming hunger cripples you. God you need some tacos, but the nearest joint is 3 miles away, and they don’t like dogs. Don’t worry bro, TacoCopter is here to rescue you from your perils. Well it might be. I have no idea if this thing is real or not, but everything inside of me wants it to be because it combines three of my favorite things: robots, iPhone apps, and tacos. TacoCopter is a website that claims to a be a startup in San Francisco that will use magical flying robots to deliver tacos to your location.
You know the drill. You take a walk around a nearby neighborhood at dusk, when it’s dark enough that people have switched their lights on, but not late enough that they have closed their drapes. You glance through the windows and get a tiny, thrilling glimpse into their private world.
But what if you want to get even creepier? How many bedrooms does that house have? How much is it worth? Does it have heating? The answers to these questions can be had using an iPhone app called HomeSnap. Just snap a photo of the home, and it will pull up the details in seconds.
Earlier this week, we highlighted the growing need for companies to develop more comprehensive approaches to iPhones, iPads, and other mobile devices than simply purchasing and implementing a mobile device management console. The device-only approach isn’t always a solution in itself and there’s a growing trend of focusing on managing the information and apps on an iOS device instead of (or in addition to) the device itself.
As this multi-tiered model becomes more common, businesses are typically looking at multiple solutions, which is prompting companies in this space to develop strategic partnerships or consider acquisitions as a way of offer businesses a more integrated approach. Two instances of this were the announcement of Good and Box partnering for secure data and enterprise cloud storage and Symantec’s acquisition of Nukona and Odyssey.
Another partnership was announced yesterday between MDM vendor MobileIron and enterprise wireless firm iPass.
Apple’s main supplier pal Foxconn is massive. With multiple mega-factories that can include up to 400,000 workers living on a cramped “campus,” it’s no surprise that Foxconn has quickly become one of the biggest companies in the world. They employ more people than Apple. Not only that, but they’re actually the 10th largest employer in the world, which is freaking enormous when you consider that the US Department of Defense is the world’s largest employer with 3.2 million employees. Foxconn, on the other hand, is just a few notches below them with 1.2million employees. Amazing!
Process is a new take on photo editing apps. It’s simple, fast, powerful and has some very clever ideas about how we edit our photos. The in-app introduction describes it as a “non-linear editor for photos,” and that’s not far from the mark.
In the five years since the iPhone Photography Awards (IPPA) launched, the iPhone camera has gone from disappointing to out-snapping Nikon as the most popular camera on Flickr.
As the March 31 deadline for this year’s award approaches, IPPA founder Kenan Aktulun talks to Cult of Mac about his favorite pics, the distinction between good and great iPhone photos and why apps may not help you create them.
Apple’s decision to make Best Buy an official partner for the iPhone is certainly paying off. With 1,100 outlets across the U.S. and an online store, the retailer is now selling almost as many iPhones as Apple itself, according to a survey of customers who purchased the device between December 2011 and February 2012.
Apple and Samsung have battled in court over the design of a number of Samsung’s Galaxy products, which Apple believes were “slavishly” copied from the iPhone and iPad. However, the Korean company’s chief of mobile design maintains that the Galaxy is “original from the beginning,” and believes that one day, he will match Jony Ive by designing a truly iconic product.
Apple’s iOS Safari browser has been the source of many vulnerabilities in the past, and a new discovery reveals a scary bug in the latest version of iOS. When browsing the web on iOS 5.1, there’s the potential that you could run into some address bar spoofing.
What does that mean exactly? Basically, a site URL could be displayed in the address bar that doesn’t actually match the webpage you’re visiting.
With all the rumors surrounding Apple’s intense negotiations to acquire licensing agreements with Hollywood studios for its upcoming television, it can be easy to forget about another aspect of the equation that needs to be reinvented: the remote. When Apple does unveil its long-awaited ‘iTV’ to the dismay of cable providers, you can bet that it won’t come with a clunky clicker like every other TV on the market. If there’s anything that needs to be changed about the industry, it’s the tool we use to communicate with our TV sets.
How would Apple do its own remote? Some have speculated that the iTV will be completely controlled by Siri, but there’s more to the puzzle than just voice control. In fact, you probably already use the future iTV’s remote every day.
RIM has making some interesting choices regarding its future over the past year. The company launched its PlayBook tablet with what was really a beta release of the OS. It expanded its device management platform to include support for managing iOS and Android devices (though many saw that move as too little openness too late in the game). And it introduced support for Android apps in last month’s PlayBook OS update.
In another move that will leave observes scratching their heads, RIM is looking to hire iOS developers. Unlike RIM’s recruitment of Android developers, this doesn’t appear to be in any way aimed at porting existing apps to the PlayBook. The job posting, which lists RIM’s Bellevue, WA location, is for an internal Senior iOS developer that would be creating enterprise-focused iOS apps for the iPhone and iPad.
The app privacy scandal caused by Path’s iPhone app is still leaving its mark, as members of the U.S. Congress have sent out letters to 33 prominent App Store developers to better understand the issue. “We want to better understand the information collection and use policies and practices of apps for Apple’s mobile devices with a social element.”
Apps like the official Facebook and Twitter clients are among the list. Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman and Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee Ranking Member G. K. Butterfield have requested that the developers behind such apps reveal how Apple imposes its privacy standards and how the standards are implemented.