Ulysses 3, the awesome next-generation text editor from the Soulmen, has just landed in the Mac App Store. It's $20 for a week, going up to $40 after that, and is worth every damn penny. And lest you think I'm some pussy-assed blogger who gets everything for free, I'm not. I just dropped my $20 like everyone else. And this is despite the fact that, so Killian tells me, I have a quote right there on the MAS page.
You could easily make your own iPhone amplifier dock from a shoebox. Or better, an old wooden wine case. Or best of all, you could get out your clamps, drills, router and hot glue and go medieval on some pile of wood’s ass. If you choose the latter route, then you should download the plans (totally SFW) from Renee at Red Bird Blue – her amazing creation is what you see in the picture above.
What’s your favorite Instagram filter? We all have one. Mine is X-Pro, and I almost never use anything else (except for no filter, which – according to Statigram – is my second most used “filter.”)
But what does this excessive use of one particular look say about me? Or – less importantly – about you? Luckily, there’s an info graphic for that, and it tells you your personality type according to InstaFilter Preference:
X-Pro II
The Optimist
The users see the world a little brighter and they want you to see it that way too. So what if it’s a gray day? They’ll make sure those raindrops pop against a windshield – and will then make the photo their new wallpaper.
Better is the definition of a “Normal” shooter. Anyone who goes commando in Instagram is either a techno-illiterate idiot, incapable of even tapping on a brightly-colored thumbnail, or “tech-savvy frauds, passing off pictures they fixed in other applications as #nofilter works of art. You’re not fooling anyone.”
As somebody whose first Instagram picture was a “#nofilter work of art,” imported into my iPad 2 from a Panasonic GF1, I can say that this entry at least is pretty accurate. Go check the rest out at the links below.
It seems like just yesterday that I was complaining about the lack of sharing and export in iOS reading apps… Maybe that’s because it wasonly yesterday. I was actually moaning about Read Later apps, but I mentioned Kindle and iBooks as being equally bad.
Now, just a day later, I discover that there’s a free Mac app which will suck the notes and highlights out of your iBooks and package them up in a nicely-formatted PDF, or direct to Evernote. It’s called Digested, and it does exactly what it says it does.
If you’re the proud owner of a Fujifilm X100s camera, then today is yet another happy day for you: Lightroom has been updated to v4.4 and now supports your camera’s wacky X-Trans sensor, the clever sensor which removes the need for an anti-aliasing filter by placing the color pixel filters in an irregular grain-like pattern.
And of course the update supports a whole bunch more camera (listed below), as el as fixing bugs.
Tim Schafer and Double Fine Productions have made some amazing games over the years, including gems like Psychonauts, Grim Fandango, Costume Quest, and Brütal Legend. Then they took to Kickstarter to see if they could get their community to support them in the development of a new game, generically called “The Double Fine Adventure Game.”
Well, it’s named now, and it’s got its first trailer ready for you to see, above. The trailer itself looks at once whimsical and heartfelt, with a poignant musical piece and a bit of gameplay footage.
There’s a great discussion unfolding over on Branch between some Apple reporters about the future release date of iOS 7.
According to the sources of those involved in the discussion, Jony Ive’s fingerprints will be all over iOS 7, the only problem is it’s taking longer to develop than originally planned. In fact, Apple might have even pulled engineers away from OS X 10.9 to work on it.
In two days, Facebook will gather a bunch of people into a room and Mark Zuckerburg will tell them all about Facebook’s new smartphone. It’s made by HTC. It’s got a custom build of Android, and tons of Facebook integration. And it looks pretty boring.
Evleaks just posted a picture of what is probably Facebook’s smartphone. It’s called the HTC First, and it looks like millions of other Android handsets on the market. No details on the specs, but I’m sure Mark will give us an ear full on Thursday.
Music streaming services like Spotify and Rdio are great because you get to listen to as much music as you want, without having to pay for it. They’re especially great on roadtrips, and if you have a car with Ford’s SYNC AppLink platform you can now keep the tunes cranking on your drive without touching a thing.
Spotify just updated its app to include Ford SYNC AppLink support. To get Spotify in your Ford all you have to do now is log into your premium account on your iOS device and connect to SYNC AppLink. You can manage all your music and playlists with SYNC’s voice-controls so you won’t get distracted while thumbing through albums in search of that new JT album.
The only way to get an iPhone on T-Mobile the past few years was to go out and buy an unlocked iPhone and put a T-Mobile SIM card in it. Now that T-Mobile has become an official carrier, a lot of iPhone users that are already on the carrier want to be able to use LTE but can’t.
To make things better, T-Mobile says they’re going to rollout an update for all unlocked iPhones on the network starting April 5th. The update will flip the switch on features that aren’t currently available, like LTE and Visual Voicemail.
We’ve heard rumors that Apple will unveil the iPhone 5S in June of this year, and it turns out that there might actually be some truth to the rumors.
The Wall Street Journal reported today that Apple plans to begin production of the next iPhone in Q2 of 2013. The new iPhone will have the same shape and 4-inch screen as the iPhone 5S and will probably launch this summer.
Mozilla has released Firefox 20 for Mac users, and this major update brings several new features and improvements to the web browser. Two of the biggest features are “per-window” private browsing and a redesigned download manager.
You can now open a private browsing tab instead of having to open an entirely new window and close the current session. The new, Safari-like download manager is a little arrow that sits in the browser’s toolbar next to search. You can click it to see and interact with all current downloads.
Despite all its problems with the ‘iPhone’ trademark in Brazil, Apple is trying to get its devices in as many Brazilian hands as possible by slashing prices on the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.
Randolph Divisions makes the HearPod, a digital hearing aid. The company has owned the “HearPod” trademark since 2007, and it recently filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Apple in Hawaii District Court. Apparently “HearPod” and “EarPods” sound too much alike.
Apple also owns a trademark for its EarPods, but it doesn’t own the earpods.com or earpod.com domain names—Randolph Divisions happens to own the latter.
With the kind of cash Apple has in the bank, Randolph Divisions will likely be paid off to settle this lawsuit.
I love my Wacom Bamboo Stylus; it’s by far the best stylus I’ve owned for the iPad. And although I wouldn’t exactly call it big, I wouldn’t want to carry it around in my pocket all day. Fortunately, Wacom has a new, smaller and super cute version of the Bamboo for that.
Called the Bamboo Stylus mini and measuring just 1.85 inches, it’s the perfect portable stylus for those on the go.
Don't expect to see this running on iOS 6 anytime soon.
There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that jailbreak hackers have exploits saved up for another jailbreak release in the future. The bad news is that we will not be seeing a new jailbreak any time soon — at least until after iOS 7 comes out.
In China, the state-run press has been attacking Apple non-stop for the past couple of weeks over warranty policies that showed the company’s “unparalleled arrogance.” Apple Stores were fixing broken iPhone returns instead of replacing the devices entirely like they do in the United States. There was also an issue with Apple’s 90-day warranty on replaced parts not matching China’s mandatory one-year warranty policy.
Things got so heated that Apple CEO Tim Cook had to issue a public letter to Chinese customers apologizing “for any concerns or misunderstandings.” Apple’s scrutinized warranty and return policies have also been changed to address the concerns.
After the apology, China is starting to warm back up to Apple.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) will reportedly land a deal for Apple’s future “A7” processors when the Cupertino company’s current contract with Samsung expires in 2014.
Samsung has been responsible for Apple’s mobile chips since the introduction of the A4 back in 2010, but Apple has seemingly been looking to take its business elsewhere since the pair became embroiled in a series of lengthy legal battles.
We’ve been excited for iSteve, Funny or Die’s upcoming Steve Jobs movie, since it was announced on March 18, and with just under two weeks to go until its release, we’ve got its first teaser trailer. Check it out below.
Apple has been dealt yet another blow by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office after receiving confirmation that its famous “rubber banding” patent, which plays a key role in the company’s fight against Samsung, is invalid. The “final” decision comes after the USPTO tentatively rejected all claims in the ‘381 patent back in October 2012.
Picfari is a smart little iPhone app which tells you where all the best photos are to be taken – wherever you are. Say you’re on vacation in, I don’t know… Barcelona, Spain. Fire up the app and it’ll not only let you browse photo hotspots, it’ll also pull in great sample shots from places like Flickr, and even give you some tips on getting the best shots.
Good news for those of you who were unfortunate enough to have dropped $130 on the Wahoo RFLKT (ROFL!) Bluetooth 4 iPhone HUD for your bike. One of the best iPhone cycling apps – Cyclemeter – has just been updated to support your fragile dongle. There’s bad news, too: You’ll have to drop another $3 on an in-app purchase to enable the new feature. Insult, meet injury.
Just Mobile, the folks behind many handy aluminum Mac and iOS accessories (like the pencil-impersonating AluPen stylus, and the AluRack laptop mount) has just busted out three new gadgets. There’s the AluCup – a plastic and aluminum desk-tidy in the shape of a cup; the HeadStand, which is a headphone holder/hanger for your desk, and the AluFrame, a fancy aluminum bumper for the iPhone 5.
Apple has released the first beta of OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.4 to third-party developers. “Please be aware that you will not be able to revert back to your previous system after updating,” warns Apple. “Please install this update on a system you are prepared to erase if necessary.”
The seed’s release notes don’t contain anything significant, but devs will surely find new stuff once they get to digging through the OS. 10.8.3 was released to the public a couple weeks ago after going through 13 beta revisions over a period of nearly 5 months.
It was February of last year when Apple unveiled Mountain Lion as the successor to Lion. Bets are on for what cat the next major OS X release will be named after.
HD Voice offers higher voice quality for networks and devices, like the iPhone 5, that can support it. T-mobile has already announced its own plans to deploy the technology when it begins selling iPhone 5s later in the month. Sprint also has plans for the higher resolution mobile audio.
AT&T today announced its own support for HD Voice, with senior VP Kris Rinne telling group of technologists at the VentureBeat Mobile Summit that AT&T plans to roll out HD Voice support later this year, at the same time it starts running voice calling on its own LTE network.