Less than a week after Apple released iOS 7 to the world, the majority of iPhone and iPad owners around the world are using the operating system, and if the past is anything to go by, that adoption rate won’t slacken until only a tiny sub-fraction of users are left boasting out-of-date versions of Apple’s mobile operating system.
It’s ironic, then, that a week after iOS 7 was released, the iOS 6.1.4 jailbreak is almost done.
Oh, ignoble irony, how bitter your sting. A new bug in iOS 7 that is striking some iWork users is crashing their devices with the fabled Blue Screen of Death.
There’s one feature in Adobe’s new Photoshop Elements 12 which demonstrates exactly the market that the app is aimed at: Pet Eye Correction. That’s right: if you’re the kind of person who takes flash photos of their pets with a shitty compact camera, and yet is willing to spend around $100 on an application which will help organize and edit your photos, then Elements 12 is for you.
Maybe I’m a big dummy, but I always thought that the whole point of “read later” apps was that you could shunt long-form articles off the desktop and onto a device that was better suited for reading for extended periods. After all, on the desktop a combination of bookmarks and Safari’s Reader view takes care of things.
But what do I know? Clearly there’s a place for reader apps on the Mac, and the $10 Words looks to be a very nice example.
EA Sports has brought the controversial free-to-play game model to the world’s biggest soccer franchise in FIFA 14 for iOS, which is now available to download from the App Store — three days before the big console release.
The title boasts a whole heap of improvements, including a new and intuitive control system, online multiplayer, a game of the week feature, and the hugely popular FIFA Ultimate Team mode.
The Plicopá is a cardboard iPad sleeve which unfolds and refolds into a sturdy tablet stand, ready to support your iPad for poking, or just to prop it up while you tap out words on an external keyboard. It looks to be pretty much ideal for travelers.
Marshall’s beautiful Stanmore brings some retro styling to the Bluetooth speaker game, looking a lot like one of the company’s classic combo amps or – if you want to really rock out – like the front of a speaker from a stack, with the head-unit controls concealed on the top.
Here at Cult of Mac, we love Mailbox, the third-party Gmail client for iOS. But since it was optimized for iOS 7, it has been plagued by a hugely frustrating bug that causes email accounts to be deleted at random. Fortunately, the app’s latest update — which is available from the App Store now — finally fixes the problem.
But at what cost?
If you were one of the many Apple TV users who didn’t have a pleasant experience updating to the big 6.0 update a few days ago, it’s safe to re-download and try again. After there were widespread reports of the software bricking devices, Apple pulled the update from its servers.
That happened earlier today, and now version 6.0 is available again with a new build number and hopefully some bug fixes. You can find it in software update. Once it’s installed, your Apple TV will be able to install updates on its own.
Apple TV 6.0 is one of the biggest updates to the set-top box ever. It adds iTunes Radio, Airplay from iCloud, shared Photo Streams, Podcast syncing, and more.
Breaking Bad fans have been upset with Apple because of a mixup regarding Season Passes in the iTunes Store. If you’re a fan of the show you know that the creators decided to slip the last season into two parts, effectively creating two separate seasons of 8 episodes each: “Season 5” and “The Final Season.”
Purchasers of the iTunes Season Pass for Season 5 expected to get all 16 episodes, not just the first half. A lawsuit was filed against Apple recently claiming that the company owed Breaking Bad subscribers a $22.99 Season Pass for the last 8 episodes instead of making them pay twice.
Today Apple started issuing Season Pass subscribers promo codes for “The Final Season” of Breaking Bad on the house to the tune of $22.99.
Apple sold a lot of new iPhones over the weekend—9 million to be exact. While we don’t know the breakdown sales for the 5c and 5s, estimates suggest that the ratio of 5s sales to 5c sales was around 3 to 1.
Launch supply of the 5s was significantly constrained due to what was likely shortages of new parts. It’s nearly impossible to get a 5s in most stores around the country. Many carriers and third-party retailers only got a few units per location for launch weekend.
Apple’s online store also sold out of all initial 5s stock over the weekend, and shipping estimates for all configurations have been pushed back to an ambiguous October timeframe. To help cope with demand, Apple is now offering an in-store pickup option for helping you find a 5s at a local Apple Store.
The Touch ID fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 5s has already been hacked—well, kind of. Over the weekend, a hacking team called the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) published a way to bypass Touch ID by replicating a lifted fingerprint.
Apple calls Touch ID “the most advanced hardware or software we’ve put in any device,” and the company believes the technology is the perfect replacement for a passcode. CCC disagrees.
Now that everyone has had a solid day or three to play with their shiny new iPhones, the Internet is ready with its customary wave of iPhone destruction videos.
We’ve already seen a number of durability tests, but RatedRR takes its testing to the extreme with its annual iPhone X vs .50 Cal Rifle test. The slo-mo shot of the bullet splitting the length of the gold iPhone 5s is pretty spectacular, if not the perfect celebration of American Consumerism, but why don’t they mix it up with like a bazooka, or ion cannon, or wheelchair-bomb once in a while?
Friday, we reported that Apple TV was updated with a new v6.0 update, bringing with it features like AirPlay from iCloud and iTunes Radio.
Today, however, Electronista reports that the update has been pulled. We’ve confirmed that the update is no longer available, as our un-updated Apple TV still says it has up to date software today, showing Apple TV software version 5.3.
We assume the update was pulled due to several user reports on the Apple TV discussion forum of Apple TV devices becoming useless after updating to the new OS.
When the iPhone was originally launched in 2007, experts across the globe claimed it would never be able to compete against the #1 smartphone maker at the time – BlackBerry. Fast-forward six years and the iPhone 5s and 5c just had the best smartphone launch weekend ever, while BlackBerry just entered a letter of intent to sell itself for $4.7 billion.
Apple sold 3 million iPhone 5s and 5c units everyday for the past three days this weekend for the most successful smartphone launch in history. Not only did Apple completely dominate its old sales numbers set by the iPhone 5, but based on this handy chart that Horace Dediu whipped up, Samsung has never even come close to any of the iPhone’s launch day performances.
Sure the Galaxy S 4 comes close to the iPhone 3G and 3GS sales numbers, but that was over five years ago. Looks like Samsung still has a lot of catching up to to do, and if early morning trading on AAPL shares is any indication, Wall Street agrees.
Source: Horace Dediu
The launch of the iPhone 5c went really well this weekend. So to keep you in remembrance of everything that is holy and fun with the new iPhone 5c, Apple released two new ads this morning showcasing the colorful sides of its iPhone 5c users.
The new ad called “Greetings” zips through a number of scenes of people saying “hello” in different languages on their iPhone 5c. An extended version of the ad was also released and can be viewed below:
Apple announced this morning that it sold an ungodly number of iPhones during the iPhone 5s and 5c launches this weekend – 9 million to be exact. The launch was Apple’s most successful ever, after Apple sold a record-breaking 5 million iPhone 5 units during its launch.
Along with the stratospheric sales numbers, Apple also announced that more than 200 million iOS devices were updated to iOS 7 since its launch on September 18th, making it the fastest software upgrade in history.
Oh man, I love feeding pets, and they love it too. After your little friend has finally dragged you out of bed (by attacking your feet with sharp claws [cat] or nuzzling you with his disgusting wet nose [dog]), you both head to the kitchen together. He’s all around your ankles, excited for breakfast. And you? Totally up early – again! – and ready to make a delicious cup of coffee with plenty of time to enjoy it.
Now, though, there’s a new way to feed pooch or moggy: the Pintofeed. Here’s how the morning goes with a little iPhone-controlled automation:
Your loyal companion scratches at your closed door. You hear him and reach for your phone, irritated. You tap a button, and the Pintofeed in the kitchen dumps another load of dried meat pellets into its dusty bowl. Your pet goes to the kitchen, alone, and half an hour later you wake up, rush into your clothes and pick up a Starbucks on the way to work. Nice going, you lazy, selfish creep.
The Magnefix book case for the iPad mini solves two problems: first, it protects the edges and corners of the little iPad like the Smart Cover never can, and second, it converts into a stand that doesn’t suck – the opposite of the iPad Mini’s own Smart Cover.
And, as all future-looking gadgets do, it works with the help of frikkin’ magnets.
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The case, which costs £36 (or $58) is made with an polypropylene core and a TPU outer, with a microfiber lining to keep the screen nice and clean. To turn it into a stand, you open it up, flip the cover round back and the magnets take over, snapping the cover into place to make a sturdy stand. Compare this to the Apple case which collapses like a house of cards the first time you tap the screen.
That said, I will remain a loyal user of the official cover as it does what I need (screen protection, sleep/wake) and weighs almost nothing. Plus, it’s a pretty great tool for killing mosquitos (when removed from the iPad of course).
The new Magnefix is available now.
Source: C6
I thought that iOS 7 was ready to go on the iPad, but today I’m actually trying to do some work, and my cloud of optimism has been quickly dispelled. It’s a combination of OS-level bugginess and apps which have been too-hastily updated, and it’s causing all sorts of trouble.
The biggest problem? Using an external Bluetooth keyboard. So it’s pretty ironic that this post is about the excellent new keyboard shortcuts in iOS 7. Especially in Safari.
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The Tao of Mac blog points us to three great new shortcuts, lifted straight from OS X:
Cmd+L to move the focus to the location bar
Cmd+T to open a new tab
Cmd+W to close a tab
This is surprisingly useful, although I’m ungrateful enough to wonder why there’s no way to navigate between tabs. I’ve rattled away at my Logitech K811 and no combo of arrow key or square brackets and modifiers seems to work.
Another great side-effect of that Cmd+L shortcut is that you can now trigger an in-page search from the keyboard: just hit Cmd+L and type your query. At the bottom of the list that pops up are the in-page results, and because you’re using an external keyboard, there’s no on-screen keyboard to get in the way.
Also, double-tapping the Logitech’s home button takes you into the app-switcher view, and in iOS 7 that means that the previous app’s screen thumbnail pops into view. Combine this with the fact that any keystrokes are passed to the current app (even though you can’t see it), and you can now copy-type from one app to the next. Very nice indeed. Sadly, you need to reach up and tap the screen to actually switch to the app.
Source: Tao Of Mac
It’s a bittersweet irony that while The Lady looks as stunning in photographs as she does in real life, in fully 80% of those photographs she has her eyes closed, or half closed. That’s right – she’s a blinker.
Usually I get around this by snapping way more photos that I actually need, but inevitably the one picture that has her opened-eyed and not making some weird expression is the same photo that has captured somebody else mid-blink.
And that’s whre Perfect Shot comes in.
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Perfect Shot is a new iOS 7-only app (universal) which has smile and blink detection. You toggle either one or both of these and then point the camera at your group. The app looks for their eyes (using face-recognition) and watches everyone. The moment they are all bright-eyed and (optionally) smiling, the shutter fires.
It’s a little disconcerting as the app just takes the picture without you even tapping the shutter button to activate it. There’s also no shutter sound, so you have to rely on animations to let you know the picture has been taken – a real problem if you’re also in the shot and the iPhone/iPas is sitting unmanned.
The app is somewhat obviated by the burst mode in the new iPhone 5S, but as almost nobody actually has a 5S yet then this is still pretty useful. Available now.
Source: Perfect Shot
Thanks: John!
Just like the filters in the iOS 7 camera app, the super slo-mo mode in the iPhone 5S is somewhat confusing when it comes to exporting your work. In fact, it’s almost impossible to get your slowed down masterpieces out of the iPhone and onto sharing services without some rather janky workarounds. But thanks to Macworld’s Serenity Caldwell, we now at least know about these tricks.
Presumably thanks to hangovers caused by excessive in-flight drinking on the flight formthe U.S to the antipodes, the iFixit folks managed to not find the M7 chip inside the new iPhone 5S during their teardown before the weekend, leading to speculation that the chip didn’t even exist. Conspiracy! And as with any drunken adventure, lost things start to reappear when the dawn finally rises. The M7 chip is there alright; it just doesn’t have a big "M7" label on the front. According to the Chipworks’ blog, the M7 still carries its factory label: NXP LPC18A1. <!–more–>
> Luckily, we’ve been able to locate the M7 in the form of the NXP LPC18A1. The LPC1800 series are high-performing Cortex-M3 based microcontrollers.
The M7 is a separate chip then, but (as Apple already made clear on the iPhone 5S product page) it processes the data from the MEMS sensors on the main A7 chip, letting the iPhone 5S’s big brain stay asleep while the low-power M7 works tirelessly in the background. These sensors – compass, accelerometer, gyroscope – are mostly the same as in previous iPhones, with the exception of the new Bosch Sensortech BMA220 3-axis accelerometer. According to Chipworks, this is the first time a Bosch component has been found in an iDevice.
The A7 is made by Samsung, just like previous iPhone brains, despite Samsung’s continued and shameless ripping off of Apple’s designs in all other areas. I guess there’s no decent alternative yet.
Source: Chipworks Blog)
With the release of iOS 7, we’ve prepped a guide to what you need to know about Apple’s new operating system — along with some things you might not already know.
In this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine we catch up with uber-designer Khoi Vinh who has been using it since the beta, why experts think the new activation lock (aka “kill switch”) won’t stop iCrime and take a light-hearted look at the real-world objects that inspired the new icons.
Once again, we’ve tapped an Apple Store Genius to answer your questions on how to get an iPhone 5 replaced for free and what to do when your MacBook Pro gets all wet.
The latest issue is available for free in the App Store.
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And, just so we know, were you guys serious that we should call it a “Macazine?”