News - page 1311

People waiting for the rumored 12-inch Retina MacBook may just have to keep right on waiting, according to a new report from Taiwan’s Economic Daily News, which blames the wait on Intel’s delayed 14-nanometer Broadwell chips, which are reportedly used in the computers.

Because of these production delays, the report claims that the 12-inch MacBook may not ship until Q3 2014 or even early 2015, when the chips will be in greater supply.

Could it be that the much-anticipated sapphire displays for the upcoming iPhone 6 isn’t actually sapphire at all? Sort of, according to a new video posted by YouTuber Marques Brownlee.

Brownlee made waves a few weeks back when he apparently managed to get hold of one of the super-tough 4.7-inch displays reported to feature in Apple’s next generation handset, and ran it through the most brutal assault course this side of Full Metal Jacket. The display was subjected to a scratch and shatter test involving keys, a knife, and even Brownlee himself trying to bend it with his foot.

Provided the display (supplied by renowned Apple leaker Sonny Dickson) is genuine, this test suggests that the iPhone 6 screen will be considerably stronger than the displays used in its predecessors.

But it may still not be pure sapphire. Here’s why.

Google Search for iOS has got a new Easter that allows Android-hatin’ fanboys – or anyone else who just likes destroying things – to tear apart the GOOG’s childish logo, one letter at a time.

To find the Google Search easter egg just open the app to the main search screen and you’ll be able to drag, flick and drop letters from the Google logo anywhere on the screen. Titling right and left makes the letters float or fall based on your tilt, and if you want to restore order, each letter can be put back in its proper place.

If your app still has the Nelson Mandela logo you’ll have to wait for an update, but in the meantime, checkout the easter egg in action in the quick video below:

Concept designer extraordinaire Martin Hajek is a master of taking rumors and images about forthcoming Apple products and using them to create stunning design concepts.

With that in mind, he’s borrowed the new, rounded design language seen in many of the iPhone 6 leaks, and adapted it to show us what an upgraded iPad mini could conceivably look like in the same style. To make it more authentic, he’s also incorporated the reports of added Touch ID, which we’ve heard from multiple sources is expected in the next wave of iPads.

As with pretty much all of Hajek’s designs, the results are outstandingly authentic-looking — and offer a tantalizing glimpse at what Apple’s next miniature tablet might look like.

Imagine a world in which you order your Starbucks drink of choice from your iPhone, pay for it instantly, and then pick it up from a smiling employee minutes later.

That dream will soon be a reality. Starbucks is bringing the ability to place pickup orders in its mobile app later this year.

Today Amazon took the wraps off its Kindle Unlimited subscription, an all-you-can-read plan that was uncovered earlier this week. For $9.99 per month you get access to 600,000 Kindle titles, including “thousands” of audiobooks from Audible.

Everything is available though Amazon’s Kindle apps, including iOS and the Mac.

Long-time rivals Apple and IBM partnered up this week to work together on enterprise software, but what does this mean for Siri? If Apple’s trusty voice assistant gets together with IBM’s extremely intelligent A.I. Watson, it could be a beautiful “relationship.”

Watch today’s Cult of Mac news roundup to hear all the latest news and rumors about this potential Apple-IBM hookup, possible trouble in the iPhone 6 sapphire glass pipeline, a toaster that burns your selfies into bread and the rest of the week’s biggest stories.

Subscribe to Cult of Mac TV on YouTube to catch all our latest videos.

Microsoft’s hopes of slowly taking over the U.S. tablet market just took another hit as Lenovo, the world’s largest PC maker, has decided there’s pretty much no demand for any Windows tablets under 10-inches.

Lenovo told PC World that they’re seeing stronger interest in larger screen sizes in North America, so they’re going to stop selling all of their small Windows Tablets in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and push the ThinkPad 10.

Apple is set to open its third brick-and-mortar retail store in Western Australia, at the Lakeside Joondalup shopping mall in Joondalup, Perth.

The 5,000 square-foot location will be part of a major revamp of the shopping center, that will see it become the largest in Western Australia.

The location doesn’t come as a total surprise: almost two years ago Apple real estates scouts were seen walking in the hallmarks of the mall, although it’s only with the mall’s current renovation and expansion that Apple has found a location suitable to lease.

Production of the iPhone 6 has either just begun, or is days away from starting, according to a new report from Taiwan’s Economic Daily News.

The newspaper claims that mass-production of the eagerly-anticipated next generation 4.7-inch iPhone 6 handset is set to begin during the third week of July — making it either this week or next — while production of the larger 5.5-inch “phablet” iPhone 6 will begin during the second week of August. No sources were cited for either of these reports.

Fans of strategy simulation games can rejoice at the news that the popular Anno series — which first arrived on PC back in 1998 and has continued as a successful franchise to the present day — has landed on iPad.

Called Anno: Build an Empire, the games starts with you colonizing an uninhabited island, which you harvest for resources, before building your way up to a fully-fledged, bonafide civilization — featuring various colonized islands under your control.

During his 25-year career as a photographer, Dan Marcolina has captured moments of everyday despair and delight, from beaches and backyards to bus stations and wedding celebrations.

His work exhibits the ease of an inside joke or a knowing wink; the images are visual juxtapositions that live up to a high point of praise from Richard Avedon, who once commented that Marcolina makes images that aren’t “trying to be beautiful.”

Apple relies heavily on caffeine. A recent company job listing advertised a role for an iCup technician, with the important task of providing “a fresh brew coffee to all Apple employees within their department.”

Jony Ive’s design team is especially obsessed with the black stuff: For years they kept a $3,000-plus Italian Grimac espresso machine, despite the fact that it leaked all the time. For a while in the 1990s, the design team was even mockingly dubbed “Espresso” for their unabashed love of caffeine culture.

Apple’s not alone in its coffee snob behavior. The rise of coffee shops — with seemingly hundreds of variations on the old coffee standards — have infiltrated every city across the United States: Americans spend $18 billion per year on specialty coffee alone.

But how much do we actually know about it?

There are some incredibly clever examples of people painting masterpieces using their iPad, but a new 3-D painting app called Psykopaint is promising to provide the most authentic painting experience yet.

Psykopaint gives you an astonishing variety of materials and options to work with: ranging from different textures and opacities of paint types, to a selection of papers and canvases, each with their own absorption rates, textures, and amount of grain. You can paint freestyle, or choose to work within an accepted artistic style like Impressionism and Impasto — courtesy of custom brushes that imitate the brushstrokes of artists like Monet, Van Gogh, and Gauguin.

In short, it’s the closest thing you’ll get to feeling like a real artist.

Earlier today it was reported that Bill Campbell, aka Apple’s longest-serving board member, has elected to step down after 17 years. In a timely interview with Fortune, Campbell — who has been involved with Apple dating back to 1983 — reflects on several topics, ranging from Tim Cook’s leadership style to the challenge of balancing advisory work at Google with Steve Jobs’ “thermonuclear war” threats.

Selected highlights are below:

The iPhone comes preloaded with many stock applications, but not all are as powerful as you wish they’d be. Luckily there are tons of developers pushing new apps into the App Store, and many of their creations upstage the stock iOS applications.

In today’s video we take a look at five iOS apps that can easily replace baked-in Apple apps and enhance your iPhone experience. Look at weather in more detail, refresh your music player and more with these powerful apps.

Subscribe to Cult of Mac TV on YouTube to catch all our latest videos.

The iPhone 6 is widely expected to feature a sapphire glass display, but the protective material could only be offered with more expensive models that pack the most storage.

Apple’s sapphire supplier in Arizona, GT Advanced Technologies, might not be able to produce enough displays to meet initial demand when new iPhones come out this fall. While opinions are varied as to how many displays Apple will be able to make, it’s being reported that sapphire could very well only be available in the most expensive iPhone 6 models.

Apple is continuing its push to diversify its leadership with the announcement this afternoon that Susan Wagner, a wall street insider who co-found one the world’s top investment firms, has been added to the company’s board of directors, taking the spot of the board’s longest serving member.

Bill Campbell has been on Apple’s board for 17 years but has decided to retire, making room for Wagner to take her seat on Tim Cook’s board. Wagner comes to the board after co-founding BlackRock in 1988 and leading it to become one of the world’s most successful asset-management companies. She’ll continue to serve on BlackRock’s board, as well as boards for Swiss Re, Wellesley College, and Hackley School.

In an press release announcing the changes, Tim Cook had high praises for Wagner, as well as the man she’s replacing:

Today Apple rolled out two-step verification for Apple ID accounts in 48 new countries. With the addition of countries like China, Japan, India, and France, two-step verification for Apple IDs is now supported in a total of 59 countries. Only 11 countries offered the extra security measure until today.

Lightning ports haven’t even been around for two years now, but I think it might be time for Apple to consider replacing it with the MacBook’s most underrated feature: Magsafe power connectors.

Cabin is a new a Kickstarter projected aimed at bringing the MacBook’s awesome MagSafe power connector to the iPhone 5 and 5s, with a battery case that’s so sleek and unapologetically aluminum, you’d think it came straight from Jony Ive’s prototype design lab.

Time tracking for clients can be a huge pain, but there’s a new iPhone app out called Hours to make the process easier.

“Three years ago we got so frustrated with time tracking software that we decided to do something about it,” said Jeremy Olson of Tapity, an Apple Design Award-winning studio behind apps like Languages and Grades. Hours features a simple, elegant interface with flexible options for keep track of when you work.

Facebook’s ‘make a bunch of apps and see which ones stick’ strategy for mobile has unleashed a new app for the iPhone this morning, and it’s supposed to make interacting with famous people on Mark Zuckerburg’s social network easier than ever, but you’re probably not cool enough to use it.

Apple’s new mothership isn’t expected to touchdown in Cupertino until 2016, but construction on the new campus is starting to hit a rapid pace, as new areal photos reveal the exterior walls are nearing completion as well as the construction of underground tunnels.