Apple’s fifth-generation iPad will enter production between July and August, according to supply chain sources in Taiwan. The device is expected to sport a thinner, lighter design much like that of the iPad mini, with smaller bezels around its display.
Pano Glitches are a the new fake light leaks. Only they’re better. Pano Glitching involves setting your iPhone to shoot a panorama and then dicking with it on purpose. Instead of following the instructions to smoothly sweep the iPhone across the scene in front of you, you can quickly switch views, or just jerk the phone in your hand.
Panasonic’s new GF6 Micro Four Thirds camera has two new gimmicks: NFC and Wi-Fi, with the latter acting as a fast way to set up a Wi-Fi connection between the camera and an NFC-enabled phone.
Along with this it brings a new 16MP sensor, fast startup and the promise of great low light performance. Let’s take a look.
Vine’s co-founder and Creative Director, Rus Yusupov, tweeted today that Vine, the social video app of the moment, has hit the top spot on Apple’s own Top Free Apps list in the App Store. He attached a screenshot of the App Store from his iPhone, showing Vine sitting on top, ahead of hot (and highly advertised) games like Warner Bros’ Injustice: Gods Among Us, and Sega’s Sonic Dash.
Here’s what Yusupov said on Vine’s parent company’s own social networking service: “Hey guys, remember that time we made the No. 1 most popular app in the world? @ckb @dhof @bobby @vineapp”
Google today announced the final step in the process of moving from the Unique Device Identifier (UDID) of Apple’s older iOS versions to the newer Identifer for Advertising (IDFA), as per Apple’s instructions to developers last month.
Ron Johnson, the man who helped create the Apple Store alongside Steve Jobs, has left his role as the CEO of JC Penney. Johnson resigned from Apple back in 2011 to accept the JC Penney position.
Morale at JC Penney has weakened since Johnson was put in charge 16 months ago. The company has been bleeding money, and Johnson’s retail strategies have not seen success. Johnson’s departure doesn’t come as much of a shock to those who have been following his failed attempts to revitalize the department store chain.
Last year Tim Cook said that Apple was working on “something really great” for the Mac Pro in 2013, and now it has been revealed that we could see a completely new model as soon as this month.
Even though Apple has included Thunderbolt ports on its Mac line since 2011, the technology hasn’t really taken off yet as a go-to connection for accessory makers. Despite that, Intel is making Thunderbolt even better by doubling its data-transfer rate.
What would make the next iPhone truly exciting? That’s what people are wondering. A lighter body, better camera, and iOS 7 probably won’t cut it for most. How will Apple deliver the pizazz we’ve all grown accustomed to?
Software is always evolving, and Apple has arguably the best software experience out there for mobile devices, period. But unfortunately software by itself isn’t that exciting. You need new hardware. Now it looks like Apple is working on some interesting fingerprint sensor-related hardware off the coast of Florida.
We’ve seen a lot of nutty fake iPhone prototype mockups. Most of them are based off the whims of some artsy designer, but this lastest concept is a even whackier because it’s a Photoshop rendering based off an actual Apple patent.
In the future, smartphones might look like this. I sure hope not. What’s the benefit of having a slightly curved display rather than a flat surface? Won’t videos look weird and distorted on a curved display? Plus, what’s up with the volume rocker on the edge of the display? If anything, Apple’s latest patent shows us that while some ideas might look cool on paper, the actual product would be a joke.
Apple loves the idea that you get a lot of use out of your iPhone, but it doesn't want to be responsible for car crashes! This 2008 patent filing describes a Windows Phone-style "drive mode" that would use a variety of sensors or iPhone data to detect when you're operating a vehicle, and would then block certain functions that might distract you while driving.
This isn't so much a car patent as an iPhone one, but it still demonstrates that vehicular safety is a subject up for discussion in Cupertino. Could talk of self-driving cars naturally follow?
Photo:
Entire ad campaigns have been created to get people to stop texting while driving. It seems like common sense – you can’t get where you need to go if you’re busy texting your friend Sheila all about how excited you are for your date tonight.
But what if you can’t get to your date because you need to check your phone’s maps? Is it ok to look at maps while you’re driving? According to the California court of appeals, no way!
Auxo, a popular jailbreak tweak that supercharges your multitasking tray, has been updated to version 1.4-2. The latest release adds a number of new toggles, including one for Do Not Disturb, and makes improvements to the flashlight and respring toggles. It also carries a number of bug fixes.
Remember Lodsys, the patent troll that began suing a bunch of indie iOS developers back in 2011 over their use of in-app purchases? Well, it’s back to do more trolling. The company has targeted another ten mobile game makers in its latest complaints, which it has been quietly filing in an East Texas court throughout 2013.
The studios named include Gameloft, Walt Disney, BackFlip Studios, and Gamevil.
If you use Google Drive for iOS, you’ve probably discovered the lack of landscape support when editing a document on your iPhone. Fortunately, that’s no longer an issue, thanks to the app’s latest update — which is available in the App Store now.
Apple mysteriously pulled app discovery service AppGratis from the App Store over the weekend. AppGratis is yet to confirm the reason for the decision, but it’s thought the app could have been in violation of a new rule Apple introduced last October banning iOS apps that feature or promote other apps.
Apple lets you control music playback on your iOS devices from the lock screen, but your options are very limited; you can play or pause tracks, and skip back and forth between them. But if you want to listen to another album, you’ll need to unlock your device and open the Music app to find it.
But not if you have Pluck installed. Pluck is a new tweak for jailbroken iOS devices that lets you access your entire music library from the lock screen.
PopAGraph is Yet Another iPhone Photo Editing App (YAIPEA), but it brings a slick interface and a nice new gimmick to the game. The idea is that you create quick masks for your photos, and then apply effects to the masked (and unmasked) sections. Then – and here’s where the name comes from – you can frame the picture so that the subject pops out over the edge.
The example picture of the boats at the top of this post shows exactly how it looks.
Concert Vault is a neat new iPad app which lets you watch and listen to music concerts. The free app has a slick interface which lets you search on your favorite bands and stream their gigs. It’s a deep catalog, too, going way back in time as well as offering newer content.
A few months back, I spent far too many hours trying to find an app which would scan a page of text and turn into actual, editable text. I found none. Or rather, I found nothing good. There are plenty of OCR (optical character recognition) apps in the store, but they were either inaccurate, or ugly, or (most often) both.
And while Evernote is excellent at letting you search on scanned pages and even your handwritten notes, you don’t get to touch the text itself.
I gave up, and now – as usually happens with my “urgent” research projects, I’ve forgotten why I needed it on the first place. Which is a shame, as Pixter Scanner has been launched,and it is quite excellent – with one huge annoyance, for me at least.
I’ve spent some time in Evoland, today, and I have to say I’m impressed. It’s more story than game, though there are all the trappings (pun intended) of the games many of us grew with baked right in. It’s a delight to play through, mostly because many of the older game mechanics, like turn-based fighting and random map encounters, don’t last too long.
It’s like getting to indulge your hankering for retro goodness without having to spend too much time with the lame stuff.
Another World (or, originally, Out of This World) is available on Steam for Mac now for ten bucks. The game has been likened to a proto action/platformer game, having been released in 1991, and then ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), the Sega Genesis, and the Apple IIGS in 1992. It’s a cult classic, exhibited at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, and you can grab the 20th Anniversary version for Mac now on Steam.
This week on The CultCast: Jony Ive’s huge sweeping iOS 7 changes; Apple Television and the Ring of Power; our favorite April Fools pranks; and careful, your iPad might be giving you Gorilla Arm… all that and the best listener shout out ever on this minty-fresh episode of The CultCast!
Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing now on iTunes, or hit play below and let the good times roll.
Apple’s online store has never really been suited to mobile devices. Sure, there’s the Apple Store app for the iPhone, but navigating to the actual website on iOS isn’t the best experience. On the iPhone, the desktop site is squeezed into a narrow, 4-inch display. You have to zoom in to actually interact with and read any part of the site.
Some recent changes help to improve navigating the Apple online store on touch-based devices. Apple has added a scrollable navigation bar under product categories that lets you quickly jump to different pages. Search results for specific products are now displayed in a cleaner grid layout as well. You can click on an icon to open the product page. These improvements look particularly good on the iPad.
True to its word, T-Mobile just pushed out an update for all unlocked iPhones on their network that enables LTE, Visual Voicemail, HD Voice and more.
Users can get the update via OTA or manually updating through iTunes. The update doesn’t change the software version on your device, so if you’re worried about losing your jailbreak, this should be safe.