News - page 1344

In preparation for Mark Zuckerberg’s evil plan of making us all download Messenger in order to carry on our Facebook conversations, Facebook Messenger has just received a spit-shine of an update.

Version 5.0 of the app adds several new features and improvements. Among these is a slightly revamped interface which makes sending photos and voice messages easier than before. In addition, users can now send videos directly from their device’s Camera Roll to friends, with these videos playing directly in the app itself.

Our friend Lewis Hilsenteger of Unbox Therapy has another video examining the alleged iPhone 6 case he got from sources overseas.

This time, he got the inclination to compare the case to the current iPod touch. And what he found is pretty interesting.

It has been a long time coming. Today Skype finally made group video calling a free feature for users on the Mac, Windows, and Xbox One. iOS is left out of the initial mix, but Skype says that it will be adding free group video to more platforms in the future.

In the underground world of iPhone trafficking, someone has to take the fall. Unfortunately, it appears to be the homeless and others in desperate need of some quick cash.

9News in Denver, Colorado has shone light on how traffickers who sell unlocked iPhones for a premium outside of the U.S. take advantage of the uninformed.

You have to understand the way carrier contracts work in the states before this system, which 9News has dubbed “iScheme,” makes sense. 

Elusive Apple CEO Tim Cook will skip his annual sit-down interview with tech journalists Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg. Instead, Apple is sending two of Cook’s top lieutenants to sit in the hot seat during the Code Conference this May.

Wall Street is lining up to stuff its pockets with cash from Apple’s money printing empire, but rather than dipping into its massive offshore cash pile to pay for its expanded buyback program, Apple is once again planning to raise an enormous amount of debt to pay off  investors.

Full disclosure up front: I was a huge fan of the Sonic series back in the day. As a result, sitting down to play Sonic the Hedgehog 2 I was of two minds: one part of me happy to be replaying a game I had enjoyed so much in childhood; the other part worried that this would be a lazy cash-in on the part of Sega.

With such a large music library on YouTube it’s an ideal way of listening to your favorite artists. Playing music videos in the native YouTube app is convenient, but playing and leaving the app to still listen to your video’s audio isn’t possible. Luckily thanks to iOS 7 there’s a simple way around this, allowing you to enjoy your music in no time.

Take a look at the video to see what to do.

Awareness is an App I’ve been using for the past week to remind me to take a break from writing once in a while. It’s simple and un-intrusive (except when it’s not, of course) and it’s had an unexpected side-effect: the reduction of achy wrists and other painful RSI symptoms.

We like Moshi’s Verso covers, which fold – origami-like – into a variety of handy stands. And we (actually probably just me – nobody else here uses one) love the InCase Origami, which covers the Apple aluminum keyboard with a case that folds out into an iPad stand.

So how could I resist Moshi’s VersaKeyboard, which kind of does both?

These new flexible wooden sleeves from Grovemade are amazing. Look at them. Just look.

They’re made from veneers of maple or walnut, lined with felted wool and have leather and brass straps to pull out the MacBook or iPad within in one easy yank.

At just $15, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Amzer Shellster fell apart after a couple of weeks, but what a couple of weeks that would be. The iPhone 5 case comes in pretty much any too-bright color you can think of, and features an integrated clip and kickstand.

Logitech’s new Hinge is an iPad case with – what do you think? Yup, a hinge. To be honest, it’s really no different from all the other cases that have a vertical crease in the back so that the front flap can fold away and around to make a multi-angle stand, but the Hinge looks better than most of them while it does it.

Straight outta Leipzig comes the latest update to Soulmen’s Ulysses III, the writers’ text editor for the Mac. As ever with Soulmen updates, the fact that this is a “mere” point update shouldn’t fool you. Ulysses III 1.2 is the kind of thing many folks would ship as a v2.0.

The Power Mac G4 Cube, introduced in July 2000, delivered a fair amount of Apple computing power in a unique see-through enclosure made of acrylic glass. Designed by Jony Ive, the futuristic-looking Cube offered a glimpse of the sleek industrial design that would come to epitomize Apple’s upscale take on consumer technology.

“I just remember it being this incredibly elegant, sexy machine that looked nothing like a computer,” said Randall Greenwell, director of photography at The Virginian-Pilot and a longtime Apple aficionado, in an email to Cult of Mac.

The greening of Apple: it took almost 10 years for the Cupertino company to turn around its dismal eco-scorecard.

But that worm has truly turned: in this week’s edition of Cult of Mac Magazine, author Luke Dormehl talks to former Apple exec John Sculley and other insiders about why this change is all about current Apple CEO Tim Cook.  Apple’s green day means a better future and even better products, they say.

Also this week, we’ve got reviews editor Charlie Sorrel taking a deep dive into underwater iPhoneography, plus his reviews for the best in Apple-related paraphernalia — including a mullet-style notebook (you know: business up front, party in the back.) Our tastemaker Buster Hein has once again sifted through all the offerings in the iTunes store to serve up the most scrumptious offerings in music, books and movies and Evan Killham rounds up what you need in apps.

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Image: Wikipedia

When Tim Cook takes the stage at WWDC in a couple months, everyone is expecting him to unveil the latest iteration of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 8… the first major update to the OS since Jony Ive drastically overhauled it.

Most of us at this point have come around to iOS 7 being an improvement on iOS 6, but even so, there’s lots of room for improvement. And if iOS 8 ends up looking anything nearly as good as this concept video from TechRadar, I think we’ll all be very pleased indeed.

Remember that original Apple Lisa computer you’ve got in the basement, boxed next to your old VHS player and Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots toys? It may be time to dust it off and take it an auction house.

That’s based on the news that a Lisa 1 (a.k.a. Apple’s first computer to come with a graphical interface and a mouse) is expected to fetch $42,000 when it goes under the hammer in Germany late next month.

We’ve seen some incredible tattoos of Steve Jobs before, but this has to take the cake.

Coming off another record quarter, it’s hardly a surprise to find out that iPhone sales are looking pretty healthy globally.

A new report from research firm Kantar Worldpanel shows just how healthy they are, however, by analyzing worldwide smartphone sales over the twelve-week January-March period. The report shows that strong sales of Apple’s flagship iPhone 5s have helped regain market share in places such as Europe, Japan and Australia.

Remember when your first discovered Wikipedia and spent hours hyperlinking from page to page, reading random entries on everything from the numbering of U.S. highways to John Cage’s “As Slow As Possible?”

I had that feeling again over the weekend when I found Das Referenz, a new iPad app which takes it inspiration from old encyclopaedias and typeface design to create what is almost certainly the most beautiful Wikipedia browsing experience out there.

Jailbreaking your iPhone is of questionable wisdom these days, but this new tweak is pretty cool.

Called Convergance, it promises users a complete, all-in-one Lock screen replacement package for iOS. The package’s features extend across four main areas: widgets, theming, HTML, and APIs for developers.

Anyone whose iOS device is missing a certain speedy blue hedgehog can rejoice this week, thanks to a new sale that has seen Sega drop the price of several of its Sonic iOS games.

Currently both Sonic The Hedgehog and Sonic The Hedgehog 2 can be picked up for just 99¢ each (down from their normal price of $2.99), while Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is now available for free.

ComiXology has long been one of my favorite iOS apps, but I’m not a big fan of the latest update, which makes it impossible to purchase comics from within the app.

For the longest time, ComiXology was the easiest and best way to buy comics on a mobile device. Now the app has become solely a comic book reader: You must visit ComiXology’s website to buy new issues. You can still browse comics in the app, and download free ones, but the actual payment part must be done elsewhere.

Why has ComiXology gone all supervillain on us?

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