Carriers have made a killing over the last decade by charging customers absurd rates on SMS texting plans, but the times are quickly changing.
To avoid SMS fees, smartphone users have embraced free chat app messaging via apps like iMessage, WhatsApp, and Kik. As a result, SMS is starting to die a slow, and hopefully painful death, because free app messaging has officially overtake SMS as the most popular way to text message on a smartphone.
I am not a psychic, but I have a good idea where you and your iPhone parted ways.
If you’re desperately seeking it on Craigslist, chances are you lost your device – or had it stolen – over the weekend, especially at night. And probably at some fun destination – shopping, the beach, a bar – or heading there on your usual means of transportation (the car, a gas station or parking lot, or bus).
We’ve always thought that Apple’s rumored iWatch probably won’t have the ability to enter text, but maybe we’re wrong. Maybe Apple will use software similar to this ZoomBoard concept that lets you zoom in on a keyboard, tap the letter you want, zoom back out, and then find new characters.
Users who have tested the prototype were able to type about 10 words per minute with it, which is pretty slow compared to average speeds on a real keyboard, but maybe it could be used on a limited basis. We don’t think anyone will ever want to type an email on their iWatch, but what if you want to send a quick reply to a friend without pulling out your iPhone to type it up? This could be the answer.
Here’s a video of ZoomBoard in action:
Google promised us it was coming, and after a lengthy Google Now today makes its debut on iOS. It’s available as part of an update to the Google Search app, and it’s exactly what users on Android have been enjoying for the past year.
The iPad has earned first place in the J.D. Power and Associates customer satisfaction survey for the second year in a row, just a month after Apple’s iPhone secured the award for the ninth time. The popular slate scored 836 out of a possible 1,000 points having been rated on performance, ease of operation, styling and design, features, and cost.
Apple’s not expected to show much at WWDC that isn’t software. Tim Cook himself pretty much precluded seeing any major updates to Apple’s hardware line until fall. That doesn’t mean, however, that Apple won’t bump the specs of some existing Mac models, and it’s now expected by one of Apple’s more reliable activists that Cupertino will do just that, unveiling upgraded MacBooks across the line at the beginning of June.
One of the best apps to have in the toolkit of the privacy minded, developer Objective Development has just unveiled Little Snitch 3.1, their app that prevents other Mac programs from ‘phoning home’ under certain conditions.
Japanese telecom provider KDDI’s mobile branch is planning to kick off its iPhone 5S pre-orders on June 20 ahead of a launch in July, according to an internal document that has been making its way around the web. The carrier expects the device to offer a 13-megapixel camera as well as Apple’s latest iOS 7 operating system.
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has issued a note to investors in which he says the second-generation iPad mini with Retina display won’t enter mass production until October due to yield issues with the new high-resolution display. If true, the problem could make a fall launch for the device very unlikely.
In the last week I have jailbroken and then de-jailbrokened an iPad mini, mostly thanks to stupid little glitches that make me think the whole thing will just crash in the middle of something important like a round of Super Stickman Golf 2.
But if you have a hacked iPhone, you might want to keep it hacked fo a little longer, at least until you get to try the amazing Velox, a tweak that lets you use apps as little notification-center-style widgets right there on the home screen.
Those quick-access camera straps which loop through a ring screwed into the tripod socket are fantastic and terrifying in equal measure. Fantastic because they really are fast, convenient and comfortable to use (just ask Cult of Mac’s Traci Dauphin, who I have never seen without an Olympus hanging from a Black Rapid strap around her neck); and terrifying because you’re hanging your expensive camera from a strap which could unscrew itself any any time.
Add to that the fact that you can’t use a tripod with the screw-in strap plate attached and you’ll see where this new Kickstarter gadget is coming from.
This post is a little “inside baseball,” as it’s about a new tool for grabbing high-res app icons direct from the command line (or using an app), and this is the kind of thing that is most useful to writers like me. Then again, it’s by Brett ‘I just built this’ Terpstra, the Hardest Working Man on the Internet™, and is plain ingenious, so lets take a look.
Popular RSS app Reeder received a pretty big update in the App Store today. The iPhone version of Reeder has been updated to version 3.1 with support for Feedbin, a paid Google Reader alternative. RSS feeds can now be manually entered and stored locally in the app as well.
When Google declared that Google Reader is set to shut down on July 1st, Reeder announced that it would be adding Feedbin support in an upcoming update. The app already supports Fever, a Google Reader-like paid service that aggregates articles from multiple feeds and determines the most important stories of the day.
Feedbin is still in its early stages, and because the company doesn’t have Google’s deep pockets, it costs $2 per month. Reeder for iPhone costs $3 in the App Store. The Mac and iPad versions of Reeder will be receiving major overhauls in the coming months.
Source: App Store
If you haven’t played Ticket to Ride yet, all you need to know is that the iPad version is the most addictive board game I’ve played on the device. On the iPhone? Nothing even comes close (O.K., except maybe chess and Words with Friends).
This weekend the newest version of the game to hit the iPhone, Ticket to Ride Europe Pocket, goes from $2 to free. Don’t miss out on this one — and make sure you tell a buddy so you can play ’em.
With all the brouhaha over the 2-minute sell-out of Apple’s upcoming World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) this June, it’s not too surprising that the Cupertino-based technology company has taken a few steps to support those developers who weren’t able to get a ticket to the popular event.
Apple has already decided to offer video of the WWDC sessions, and has contacted some developers who were unable to get a ticket due to the online ordering system overload.
Today, however, in a post on its News and Announcements for Developers page, Apple has announced that there will be a traveling tour, dubbed Tech Talks, making its way to various cities around the country, perhaps like the ones held in 2011 for the launch of iOS 5.
Ok, so you’re a prince sent out to learn your magic at Bogsmarts, a magical boarding school for aristocratic youth in a far away kingdom. While you’re gone getting your Bachelor’s degree in petty magic, your evil aunts and uncles have predictably taken over all the smaller castles in your father’s lands, shutting you out of your rightful inheritance. So, it’s up to you to muster your troops and set off across the land, beating up your relatives’ troops, barricades, and (eventually) taking over their castles as well.
Chat Heads. They made their grand debut in Facebook Home for Android, and Facebook added them later to its official iOS app. Now they are venturing out of Facebook’s iPhone app and into the rest of iOS, thanks to a jailbreak developer.
This time around on CultCast: why we need $150,000 $230,000 $500,000 for coffee with Tim Cook; Mr. Cook talks iPhone with a 5-inch screen; and with mobile products like the iPad taking over, could Apple eventually stop selling Macs? Plus, we’re finally getting a new Xbox console; the next iOS and OS X at WWDC; and the current Apple hardware drought needs to end!
All that and more on this week’s CultCast. Stream or download new and past episodes on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing now on iTunes, or hit play below and let the good times roll.
Show notes up next.
The game in this video is called Super Monster Bros By Adventure Time Pocket Free Games. Yep, that’s the entire title. Bodes well, doesn’t it? I bet you’re itching to play it. Sadly, though, you can’t. Apple’s already yanked it from the App Store. You probably didn’t want to play it anyway, though: it has to be the most shamelessly abusive examples of in-app purchases that mortal mind can comprehend.
There’s a weird glitch that has started affecting Apple’s iMessage platform. When users text certain phrases over iMessage the last word of the text is deleted once its sent, but a large space is left behind where the word once was.
Right now there are only a couple known phrases that appear to be affected by the glitch, and one of them involves Obama. To test for the glitch, send someone an iMessage of the phrase “I could be the next Obama” but leave a trailing space at the end.
Everything will look fine when you hit send, but then the last word suddenly disappears on both users’ screen. The glitch also works with the phrase, “The best prize is a surprise”
Apple has reversed its decision to change the way iOS devices handle connections with Virtual Private Networks (VPN), now that its patent lawsuit with VirnetX has concluded. Earlier this month, Apple said it plans to kill the “Always” feature for iOS devices with VPN On Demand configured, by rolling out a software update that would kill the feature on shipped devices.
Apple proposed that users would just have to use the “Establish if needed” option until an alternative solution was provided via software update, but it looks like Apple may have reached an agreement with VirnetX to keep the “Always” feature on shipped iPhones and iPads for now.
Apple posted the following update to an article on its support site to announce the reverse in decisions:
Although it’s been almost over a week since the carnage of the Boston Marathon Bombings and the related manhunt and shootout came to a close, but there are still a lot more questions than answers about what happened and why.
A new report from Boston.com, though, has filled in some of the blanks in regards to the three hours on April 18th in which the Tsarnaev brothers carjacked a Mercedes driven by a 26-year-old Chinese man… and it looks like an iPhone app helped save his life.
Didn’t get a ticket to WWDC this year? Don’t worry, you’re certainly not the only one. But if you were looking forward to a week out of the office, then there is another event you can attend instead.
It’s called AltWWDC, and it’s a free, open alternative to Apple’s prestigious conference that encourages Mac and iOS developers to meet up and mingle and discuss the latest software from Cupertino. You won’t get your hands on OS X 10.9 or iOS 7, but you will get free lunch for a week.
It’s been a while since we’ve had a contest here at Cult of Mac, so let’s start the week off with a little bit of fun. We’re looking for a few talented (or not-so talented) readers to voluntarily decapitate themselves and replace their head with an iPad. It’s gruesome and beautiful at the same time, plus we’re giving away five free copies of FX Photo Studio Pro to best entries.
To win the contest all you have to do is take a self-portrait, and then overlay it onto an iPad in another portrait. You can go traditional and use your own face, or use a friends’ or celebrity’s face. Hell, you can draw a face and then overlay it on the iPad, we don’t care. Surprise or delight us and you’ll probably win.
After spending several years in beta testing, the popular Swype keyboard made its official debut on Android earlier this week, and at the moment it’s only available on a small number of platforms. But there’s a chance that we could see Swype’s typing technology on iOS in the future.
Swype vice president Aaron Sheedy has confirmed that his company has held talks with Apple, sparking speculation that suggests the pair are working together to develop a “revolutionary” new keyboard — possibly for Apple’s upcoming iOS 7 update.