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News - page 1508

Think You Can Do Better Than Jony? Then Redesign iOS7 Yourself

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It’s likely that your reactionary knee-jerk hatred of iOS7’s sweet new look has worn off by now, just like you’re still using Instagram and you haven’t yet actually quit Facebook (although you totally will any day now). But if you’re like our own Killian Bell, who just this second described iOS7 as “looking like the walls of a crack house after a drug-fueled makeover,” then you might want to take a look at this web app, which lets you redesign iOS7 yourself.

Brolly, The Umbrella That Lets You Text In The Rain

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It might be hard to remember during this absurdly hot summer, but there’s this thing called rain. And rain hates gadgets. Or rather, it seems to love gadgets, but they hate it. The obvious answer is an umbrella, but then you have to kind of squeeze its shaft between your shoulder and your ear so you can use both hands to operate your camera/iPhone/iPad.

What you need is the Brolly umbrella.

SanDisk’s New Thumb Drives Have Built-In Wi-Fi

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USB thumb drives are fast becoming useless, simply because we have nothing to plug them into. I used to get excited when PR folks gave me a 1GB stick instead of a DVD containing their press info, but how am I supposed to stick it into my iPad?

SanDisk’s new Connect Wireless Flash Drive fixes that. It’s a 16GB or 32GB thumb drive, only it has a Wi-Fi radio inside

Filip, A Digital Leash For Kids

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The Filip is a smart watch for kids, complete with a built-in cellphone, a tracker so you can keep an eye on them wherever they are, and messaging so you can continue to harass and berate them even as they try to build their own sense of independence.

I kind of hate it.

MagBak Sticks Your iPad To Your Fridge, Your Hands, Your Smart Cover [Kickstarter]

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Apparently, the hot new thing is to stick your iPad to the kitchen wall and then immediately start chopping red peppers. Luckily for those new to this emerging fashion, there is both a product and an instructional video available to help out. The product is the MagBak, and it consists of a pair of rubbery, magnetized pads that stick onto the back of the iPad.

Canary: A Simple, Elegant Home Security System That Works With Your iPhone

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How many people do you know that have an expensive home security system that they never turn on? Maybe that person is you. Security systems can cost a lot, and unless you’re protecting a million dollar home or your drug money (or both), most of us don’t need something so fancy.

Canary is a new product that calls itself “the world’s first smart home security device for everyone.”

Apple Hits One Billion Podcast Subscriptions Mark, Celebrates With New iTunes Page

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That's a lot of listening.
That's a lot of listening.

While some radio stations started sending out recordings of broadcasts in 2001, podcasts came onto the scene in 2004, got onto iTunes in 2005, and have since “transformed the media landscape,” according to Apple’s new iTunes splash page celebrating a milestone one billion podcast subscriptions.

Those billion subscriptions are held up by 250,000 unique podcasts across over 100 languages. More than eight million episodes have been published on the iTunes Store, according to Apple.

‘Chainsaw Warrior,’ A Single Player Board Game From The 80s, Coming To iOS Later This Year

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Auroch Digital just announced the development of a digital version of a classic Games Workshop board game from 1987, Chainsaw Warrior, coming to iPad and Android soon.

The original board game is one of the only single-player board games I know of, putting you in the role of the only hope for humanity as scary creatures come flooding through a dimensional rift in the heart of Manhattan, circa 2032. Of course, you’re the guy that must come out of retirement to battle the evil monsters, which have already destroyed the world’s bravest and brightest. It’s up to you to chainsaw your way through wave after wave the evil hordes. Wait, that sounds like a video game, doesn’t it?

Security Researcher Allegedly Used iAd Hack To Make Apple Close Dev Center

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The Twitter profile pic of the man who hacked Apple.
The Twitter profile pic of the man who hacked Apple.

Last Thursday, Apple’s online Developer Center went down for maintenance. While the regular outage typically lasts a few hours, it wasn’t until Sunday night that Apple acknowledged the issue. In a message to its developer community and the press, Apple explained that an “intruder” had breached the Dev Center’s database. Apple claimed that no personal data was stolen from its users, but the threat was great enough to warrant a complete rebuilding of the site’s backend.

A Turkish security researcher by the name of Ibrahim Balic has come forward as the person responsible for the hack, although he claims no foul play and has submitted his bugs to Apple. More information has been revealed regarding how Balic got past Apple’s security.

Apple Releases OS X Mavericks Developer Preview 4 Amid Dev Center Crisis

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Apple’s Dev Center has been down since Thursday, but that isn’t stopping the company from releasing new beta software to developers.

Earlier today, we cautioned that the hacking of the Dev Center could result in delayed updates to the iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks betas. But Apple has still pushed out the fourth developer preview of Mavericks today.

Until the Dev Center comes back online, developers won’t be able to login and directly download the new version of Mavericks. The update is only currently available in the Mac App Store for those already on a previous version of the beta operating system.

The third developer preview Mavericks came out two weeks ago. We’ll let you know if there’s anything of note in today’s version.

xRec Sneaks Into App Store, Records iPhone Screen Without Jailbreak [Update: Pulled]

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Have you ever wished you could record your iPhone’s screen activity? Short of a tool on the Mac like Reflector, it’s hard to capture video of iOS in action. Apple doesn’t allow apps in the App Store that can record video of anything on the screen… until now.

A new app called xRec has managed to slip into the App Store, and it can fully record the iPhone’s screen, including any audio.

Google Is Now Ripping Off Apple’s Patents, Right Down To The Drawings

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Google copied pretty much every aspect of iOS when it came up with Android, so I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that the Search Giant is now shamelessly copying Apple’s patents… right down to the drawing.

As noticed by Patently Apple, on the left you have Apple’s already granted patent for a wider MacBook trackpad that would be able to use the Facetime camera to detect whether someone was just resting their hands on the trackpad, or actually using it.

On the right? A new Google patent for a Chromebook that can detect a user’s presence based upon the forward-facing camera. Notice the line drawings used for both are essentially identical. Ballsy, Google!

Source: Patently Apple

Why Apple Needs A Low-Cost iPhone More Than Ever

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Since Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, smartphones have really taken off , and more than 1 billion people worldwide now own one. Last year alone, smartphones generated $293.9 billion in sales, but the cost of the average smartphone has begun falling.

More than half of cellphone owners in the U.S. and other developed markets already own a smartphone, and those in emerging markets such as China and India aren’t able to pay for high-end devices like the iPhone. As a result, cheaper options are becoming increasingly popular.

iOS 7 & OS X Mavericks Betas Could Be Delayed By Dev Center Hack

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Just a friendly note. Apple has so far been releasing new betas of iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks every other Monday, like clockwork. But with the iTunes Developer Center, down for almost four days now (because of a hack that might have been committed by a researcher) and no end in sight, if you’re expecting iOS 7 Beta 4 and OS X Mavericks Beta 4 to drop today, you might not want to hold your breath: if Apple can’t get the Developer Center up and running this afternoon, releasing a new beta isn’t likely.

Security Researcher Claims His Findings Were Behind Apple’s Dev Center Closure

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Apple’s Dev Center mysteriously went down for several days last week, and the Cupertino company revealed over the weekend that “an intruder attempted to secure personal information of our registered developers.” The site was closed immediately so that the potential for further threats could be eliminated.

It looked like Apple’s website had been hacked by someone trying to obtain our personal data, but according to one security researcher, it was his discovery of 13 bugs in the system which prompted the company to take action.

Hand-Cranked iPhone Charger Will Give You Forearms Like Popeye

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Dumb phones had a few advantages over today’s smartphones. First, their batteries lasted for what seemed like weeks between charges. And second, if the battery did die, all you lost was the ability to call and SMS people. You didn’t lose your e-mail, your camera, your iPod, the book you’re reading or the movie you were planning to watch on the train home.

So you carry a spare battery. But what if you could eliminate the need for that spare, and also ditch that creepy wrist-strengthener you insist on pumping all the time like some hyperactive pervert?

Good news! With the Mipwr Dynamo Case, you can do both.

The Cambridge Camera Bag Is The Camera Bag Harry Potter Would Have Used

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This is the Cambridge Camera Bag, and it is supposedly inspired by the schoolbags of English children. Perhaps this was the case in past years, when only the privileged offspring of royalty and wealthy industrialists attended school, because these days English schoolkids drag their crap around in the same battered Eastpak backpacks as anyone else.

Not that this makes the Cambridge Camera Bag any less desirable. Quite the opposite, in fact, if you’ve ever met a genuine English hooligan.