News - page 1554

A trademark lawsuit brought against Apple in regards to its use of the term “iBooks” was dismissed today in federal court. Black Tower Press sued Apple in 2011, saying that it owned a trademark acquired in 2006 and 2007. The lawsuit also noted that Apple had a trademark for the term “iBook,” which describes one of the distinctive plastic laptop Mac computers sold between 1999 and 2006, but that the current term was being used to describe a delivery method for electronic books beginning in 2010.

The judge did not agree, dismissing the case in a 71-page ruling.

In the latest free-to-play iOS game from the makers of Critter Escape, you’ll take on the role of a crystal mining critter who must take care of an endearing blob of muck named Chuck. You’ll be tasked with escaping the crystal mines with some flinging-action and bouncy platforming skill. You’ll need to keep Chuck fed with crystals, all while navigating through dangerous places and avoiding guards and exploding things along the way.

If you didn’t catch our post the other day about the newest game from living legend Sid Meier, the creator of Civilization and a heap of other ground-breaking games, here’s the nitty-gritty.

Meier’s newest masterpiece is called Sid Meier’s Ace Patrol; it’s a sort of turn-based tabletop miniatures game of whirling World War I dogfights, digitized for an iPad’s (or iPhone’s screen). It’s also partially free, looks amazing and is bound to be an instant classic.

One enterprising soul over on the Apple boards at Reddit has taken a bunch of comparison photos from the Camera+ app website and put them together to show just how far the iPhone camera has come, with the same image taken with the original iPhone, the iPhone 3G and 3GS, the iPhone 4 and 4s, and then the iPhone 5.

The difference between the first and last photos is stunning, but there’s an initial ratio of improvement between two models of the iPhone that’s simply stunning.

Apple’s plans for an ‘iRadio’ streaming service are still being stalled by reluctant music labels, according to a report today from the Financial Times. Last month it was reported that Universal was about to partner with Apple, and the deal has allegedly been sealed between the two companies since then. Now Sony is demanding more money before it signs on.

This morning we covered a report from Reuters that said Pegatron, one of Apple’s supply chain partners in China, is increasing its work force by 40% in anticipation of producing a budget iPhone in the coming months. The news was based on Pegatron’s investors conference yesterday and anonymous supply chain sources adding the iPhone ‘mini’ bit to Reuters.

Bloomberg decided to slant Pegatron’s comments and cite “falling iPad mini demand” as the reason for the company’s forecasted 25%-30% drop in revenue during the second 2013 quarter. Never mind the fact that the drop was expected for the entire consumer electronics division of Pegatron; it’s still the iPad’s mini fault.

Mainstream publications love to take hits at Apple whenever they can, but this specific instance has turned out to be an example of Bloomberg putting words in Pegatron’s mouth.

Apple is counting down to 50 billion app downloads in the App Store, and the ticker is currently front and center on the company’s website. Some taglines rotate under the countdown, like “With 50 billion bricks, you could build 12 Great Walls of China.” Each tagline is associated with an iPad app Apple is highlighting.

The countdown is identical to when the iTunes Store hit 25 billion song downloads back in February. This time around, the lucky person to download the 50 billionth app will receive a $10,000 iTunes Store gift card from Apple. The next 50 app downloaders will each receive $500 gift cards.

What are you waiting for? Get downloading!

Source: Apple

Whether you love video games or not, there’s no doubt that games like Halo and Dead Space feature some incredible artwork to breathe life into the make-believe worlds populated by crazed gamers looking for thrills.

Usually a game studio will publish a physical book of all the fantastic concept drawings and sketches that helped bring form to a video game, but Titan Books is releasing the latest Dead Space and Halo art books on iPad this week instead.

There’s been a lot of hullyboo about skeuomorphism in the Mac and iOS community right now. Ever since the debut of iOS, Apple’s software has become increasingly ornamented with unnecessary textures and details that many people consider tacky, such as the fake Corinthian leather in Calendar or the green felt background in Game Center. This style of design is called skeuomorphism, and outed ex-Apple VP Scott Forstall was one of Cupertino’s main proponent for its wide spread use in iOS and OS X.

All signs point to Jonny Ive getting away with a lot of skeuomorphic details in iOS 7, adopting instead a more modern, ‘flat’ design.

The way people talk, though, it’s like skeuomorphism is a unique problem of the digital age. It’s not. In fact, the ancient Greeks had a problem with skeuomorphism too. So before you revile Scott Forstall for using it too much, keep in mind, it’s a design technique as old as civilization.

Siri’s good at simple things like creating appointments, sending texts, calling people and looking up random bits of information on the Internet, but what I really want Siri to be great at is managing stuff in my house.

One Redditor decided he was tired of turning his Philips Hue bulbs on and off all on his own, so he employed some clever hackery to get Siri to do it for him. In the video above you can see that the results are a little bit clunky, but it makes us drool for Apple to release a Siri API so other smart products can be controlled through Siri.

To complete the Siri Hue Bulbs hack, a jailbroken iPod was hacked to re-route Siri functionality to a Siri proxy. The iPod’s Siri beeps were replaced with WAV files for Iron Man’s Jarvis, which adds a little flair to the project.

Source: YouTube

Via: Reddit

Netflix is one of the greatest tools ever invented for absolutely destroying your weekend with laziness. All you got to do is pull up one of your favorite TV series and watch the entire thing in one glorious weekend of binge TV viewing.

A new update for the Netflix iOS app just hit the App Store and it’s going to make binging even easier, thanks to to the added “post-play” feature that will start up the next episode after one ends. Other features included in the update are a recommendation feature after you’ve finished a movie and enhanced second screen options.

Here are the release notes:

Apple is expected to launch a new low-cost iPhone later this year, but as long as you’re willing to buy an older model, you can already bag an Apple smartphone for as little as 50p a day.

British retailer Carphone Warehouse will offer the iPhone 4 on a two-year contract for just £17 a month from tomorrow, May 10, with no upfront cost. It will be the cheapest iPhone tariff available in the United Kingdom.

New MacBook Airs might be revealed at WWDC, but if you’re just looking for the cheapest price on the current MacBook Air lineup, then Best Buy’s got you set this week.

To celebrate Mother’s Day, Best Buy is taking $100 off the price of certain MacBook Air models. Then to make things even better, you can get $25 more off the price by entering the code MOM25.

Here are the prices you can expect after the discount:

Last week we reported that AT&T was planning to launch a new pre-paid brand to compete with T-Mobile and other pay-as-you-go carriers, and it looks like it’s finally here.

AT&T just pulled back the curtain on its new pre-paid BYOD service provider that’s a subsidiary of AT&T called AIO Wireless. The new pre-paid nationwide service is launching in Houston, Tampa, and Orlando today but new markets should be opened up in the U.S. over the next year.

Last year, there was a lot of debate about whether the iPhone 5 (the sixth iPhone at the time) would be called the iPhone 5 or the iPhone 6, and the same happened the year before as people bickered about whether Apple should call the iPhone 4S the iPhone 5.

As the seventh-generation iPhone approaches, the debate is opening up again: what should Apple call it? Ex-Apple ad man Ken Segall has raised convincing arguments saying that Apple is shooting itself in the foot with the “S” series naming convention, signalling to consumers that every other year, you get a half-baked iPhone instead of a fresh new one.

Now, some slim evidence is pointing towards the notion that Apple might be listening to their former advertising prodigy, and that the next iPhone might be called the iPhone 6.

Apple continues to rollout 3D Flyover support to Maps users all over the world, and it appears the features latest destination is Paris, France. Until this week, Lyon was the only French city that boasted Flyover support, but that’s no longer the case.

Pixelmator 2.2 just hit the Mac App Store, bringing more than 100 new features and improvements to one of the finest image editors on OS X. The update includes smart shape tools, a new light leak effect, a custom shapes palette, and lots more.

Facebook Pages Manager for iOS just got a big version 2.0 update that brings a number of performance improvements and new features. Facebook says the app has been rebuilt to offer a smoother, faster experience, while photo filters and support for emoji and stickers have been added.

If you want proof Apple is planning a ‘budget’ iPhone to address untapped markets, look no further than a new report which says that Apple’s suppliers are going on massive hiring sprees… and citing the imminent arrival of a new, cheaper iPhone as the cause.

Another potential component for the iPhone 5S has popped up, a small section of circuitboard that seemingly governs the upcoming iPhone’s rear camera.

We all know how to draw the "Marvel way," right? Step 1: some lines; a skeleton for your figure. Step 2: ovals and circles, pencilled in to show the head, limbs and body. Step 3: The amazing, finished, inked-and-colored result. Congratulations: You’re now Jack Kirby.

Peterson Hamilton’s Draw This App aims to help out with step two-and-a-half.

I’m posting about this Android-based tablet for a few reasons. One, I want it, and as it’s crowd-funded, my chances of getting one are helped if you want it, too.

Second, I figure that if you love your iPad as much as I love mine, then you might miss it when you get all outdoorsy and go camping/hiking/biking.

And third? It’s just awesome: the Backcountry Tablet is an e-ink, solar-powered iPad. With GPS. What’s not to like? It’s even cheap, at $250.

One question I get asked a lot (well, quite a lot anyway, considering the small size our team) in the Cult of Mac chatroom is "what camera should I get for taking better product shots?"

As reviews editor, this make me happy – of course I want better pictures on our reviews! – but the truth is that the iPhone is more than capable of making amazing product shots, especially as the target is a 640-pixel web-ready JPG.

With that in mind, Photojojo put together a tutorial for Etsy to help its users take better pictures of their home-made wares. The same advice also applies to your Ebay listings, pictures for your insurer or – yes – review shots.

It’s hard to oversell the usefulness of a good iPad stand stand for travelers. It starts on the plane so you can bypass the in-flight movies with something better, and continues from there.

You can prop the iPad up in the bathroom or on the nightstand, you can – in concert with the removed Smart Cover as a base – fashion a quick in-bed theater, and you can type, play music and everything else, all without having to put your pristine iDeice down onto filthy hotel furniture. Ugh.

It looks like another month, another 10.8.4 seed, as a new download on Apple’s developer download site, build 12E47, contains the same focus areas as last month’s seed, Wi-Fi, Graphics Drivers, and Safari.

The seed is the fifth for this particular dot release of OS X. The previous release was April 23, 2013, while the seeds before that came out on the 1st, 4th, and 17th of that month.

Mac OS X 10.8.3 went through 13 revisions over a five month period, so this could just be particularly busy focus area changes.

The release notes bundled with the seed note that there are no other known issues at this time.

Source: Apple Developer