You’re not going to exactly want to replace your tape measure, but as far as iPhone hacks go, this is about as cool as it gets: Acoustic Ruler allows you to measure distance up to 82 feet using a blast of pure sound.
For Apple, the iPhone’s clean desktop is simply an extension of its overall minimalist design. While keeping control of what apps appear on the smartphone makes fans of users, forbidding so-called carrier ‘junkware’ could be a deal-breaker for NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest wireless provider.
Just how popular is OS X Lion 10.7, compared to its predecessors? “Lion’s adoption has been less than stellar,” says one online ad firm. Yet the figures don’t seem to jive with other Internet surveys, as well as Apple’s. Who’s right? As often is the case, it depends on who you ask.
Research giant Gartner had a quick lesson for Apple: don’t let off the iPhone accelerator — if you do, you’ll pay. The latest price for delaying until October its new smartphone: iOS dipped to 15 percent of sales while Android-based handsets skyrocketed to 52.5 percent of the market.
In an intriguing note, a Wall Street analyst suggests Samsung — you know, the South Korean company keeping Apple’s legal department in yachts and private islands — could be one of the beneficiaries of $3.4 billion Apple will spend to retool suppliers’ factories in 2012. Or Apple could just build itself a couple of state-of-the-art chip factories from scratch.
If the U.S. makes it easier for tourists to enter the country, more of them will come to spend their money – especially on electronic gadgets, Fox News maintains.
They make the case for iPad buyers from Brazil, one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Despite the evidence that they’ll be soon making iPads and iPhones there, nightmarishly high tariffs still make the U.S. a better place to buy Apple products. (By the way, Cult of Mac will be in Sao Paulo Nov. 20, come say hi and talk about all things Apple in Brazil).
I fell in love with Super Mario Bros. when my parents bought me a Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) for Christmas as a young boy, and I’ve been obsessed with Super Mario games ever since. There’s nothing that would please me more than having the chunky plumber in my pocket on my iPhone. But since Nintendo refuses to bring its titles to iOS, we’re forced to play the alternatives.
But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The absence of Super Mario has spawned a number of terrific platforming alternatives that are just as enjoyable. I’ve been enjoying a number of them over the years, and thought it was about time I shared the best of the bunch.
Okay, we’re stretching it a bit with the headline, but we couldn’t resist: Apple has just sent a shut down notice to an online retailer called iPopMyBaby that sells nothing but onesies and diapers featuring Apple’s products: namely, the iPod clickwheel and iPhone homescreen.
Pugs are the adorable little walleyed goblins of dogs, but through years of selective breeding in the shallower end of the canine gene pool, they aren’t exactly the brightest pups out there.
I guess we shouldn’t feel too betrayed by this cute pug’s lack of taste then. Check out how upset Coco the Pug gets when the latest iPhone 4S commercial pops up during his channel surfing. Check out the video below.
In a twist that’s left many scratching their heads, Apple’s rival Samsung dropped plans to block iPhone 4S sales on its home turf of South Korea… the one place they could really hope for a reasonable chance at a court win. After a long-running debate, the Android-maker reportedly decided not to battle Apple in its home country because they do not need to “gain more market share in Korea,” a blustery position if there ever was one.
OS X already comes with a sizable library of some of nature photography’s most beautiful pictures, curated personally by Steve Jobs for use as wallpapers. But as breathtaking as OS X’s default wallpapers can be, if you have your Mac desktop set to randomize, you’re probably sick to death of them at this point.
The foremost name in beautiful nature photography is here to help you supplement them. Every year, National Geographic holds a photo contest, and this year, they have put up all of their entries in downloadable JPEGs suitable for the desktop, iPhone or iPad.
One of the advantages to jailbreaking the iPhone — at least for me — is the ability to add shortcuts to your home screen that will quickly adjust your device’s settings. There are a number of tweaks that allow you to change your brightness; and toggle 3G, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Airplane mode, and more.
It’s not so easy if you’re device isn’t jailbroken, but a new app called IconProject changes that — for just $0.99.
One of the biggest missing features from Apple’s Siri technology is integration with third-party apps. Apple launched Siri on the iPhone 4S with Wolfram Alpha and Yelp integration, but other developers have been unable to fully integrate their apps with Siri to create a compelling, voice-controlled experience.
Apple hasn’t given a confirmation that it will eventually open up Siri to third-party apps, but that hasn’t kept several apps from offering workarounds for Siri integration. What about the apps that were meant for Siri? We’ve collected 10 apps that we want to see integrated with Siri in the near future.
Fragmentary and occasional reports suggest that Apple has been negotiating with China Mobile for three years without reaching a deal over official support for iPhones on the carrier’s network.
The sticking point: China Mobile wants a percentage of app revenue.
Many US pundits have written that Apple should bend over and do whatever China Mobile wants. Why? Because China Mobile is so ginormous that Apple could make a killing from all those new customers, even if it shared app revenue.
I think they’re flat-out wrong. Apple should hold firm, and refuse to make an exception for China Mobile. Here’s why.
Timbuk2 says its new “aerodynamic” (their words, not mine) Mission Cycling Wallet was inspired by the gearheads over at San Francisco-based Mission Cycling Club — one imagines its inception resulting from a cacophony of complaints about sweaty iPhones and the absence of holes to stash a credit card for that post-ride latte.
First there were posts, then tweets. Now we’ve got a new word to use as a method for sharing bits of ourselves: the cling.
Business Insider claims to have information on an iPhone 5 prototype from a source that “spent about two weeks” with the device. Citing several details about the alleged prototype, the source says that Apple ended up ditching the iPhone 5 at the last minute. Instead, the iPhone 4S was released as an incremental update to the product line.
While even Business Insider notes that its source has not been completely verified, the provided details do stack up nicely with the rumors we were all hearing leading up the iPhone 4S announcement.
If you’re the type of person who spends a few hours a week searching for your car keys, wallet, dog, or other precious belongings, then the BiKN Smart Case and tags for iPhone could save you a whole lot of time.
Equipped with radios that talk to the accompanying tracking tags, the BiKN (pronounced “beacon”) case will ensure that that you’re always connected to the things most important to you — even when they’re down the side of the sofa.
Apple’s iPhone 4S has proven to be a huge hit in Hong Kong, with the city’s flagship Apple store selling all of its stock within a matter of hours. The fifth-generation device went on sale at 7 AM local time, but by lunchtime it was all gone.
In Sweden, international human rights and justice advocacy group Amnest International has launched a poignant advertising campaign called Slide to Unlock that uses custom iPhone and iPad wallpapers to try to raise awareness of the many innocent people wrongfully imprisoned around the world.
The campaign is as haunting as it is clever. Using free wallpapers, Amnesty International’s ads take advantage of the iPhone and iPad’s “slide to unlock” gesture and the ability to use different wallpapers on both your home and unlock screen to show the wrongfully imprisoned literally being freed by someone just opening their phone and sending a text.
The full series of ads below.
Having a problem with your iPhone 4S’s rapidly draining battery even under iOS 5.0.1? Take your complaints to Apple’s official support forums, not the police. A 48-year-old man from Bristol, Illinois is now in police custody after calling 911 five times to belly-ache about his broken iPhone.
While Sprint’s initial batch of iPhone 4S handsets were sold unlocked, allowing you to swap out your Sprint SIM card for a SIM card of your choice, that will no longer be the case. From today, November 11, Sprint will be SIM locking Apple’s latest iPhone.
Sometimes all it takes is a little tweaking to turn a decent gadget into one that makes the corners of your mouth curl up in a grin every time it’s pulled out and powered up.
That’s exactly what happened with the Logitech Wireless Boombox for iPad ($150), a portable six-speakered dock based off Logitech’s S715i dock, which we reviewed earlier this year.
While we can’t seem to find a practical reason for buying the Swivl iPhone mount, we still want one. The Swivl auto-tracks your movement with your iPhone’s camera, all thanks to a handy receiver that can held or worn on a lanyard.
So many possibilities!
Reallymet is a new app that claims to be about making those real-life social contacts important – but perhaps the real utility is showing your boss or your spouse that you really are where you said you’d be.
The free app is billed as a “check-in service” for people suffering from cyber-friend fatigue (“Do you ever get tired of the long list of friends you don’t really know on your social network service?) and seems plagued with the usual gamefication features (you earn points if your friends confirm the check-ins; “It’s the social game of your real everyday life!”).