While Apple’s Maps has certainly come a long way since its release last year, there’s still a lot of improving that needs to be done. The good news is that Apple is working to improve the accuracy of its mapping, and the company is hiring “Ground Truth” managers to help improve the “quality” of Maps in different regions around the world.
A “confidential presentation” that outlines the upcoming product plans for a manufacturer based in Shenzhen, China, suggests the iPhone 5S could launch in June this year. Most rumors have suggested the device wouldn’t arrive until this fall, around 12 months after the iPhone 5, but an accessory manufacturer with direct links to Foxconn is confident it’ll be here much earlier.
Earlier this week, T-Mobile announced that it will finally begin selling Apple’s iPhone next month, almost six years after the device first made its debut in the U.S. When you buy an iPhone 5 on T-Mobile, it will come with support for AWS bands, so that it can be used on the carrier’s LTE network.
Existing iPhone 5 handsets already in circulation don’t have this, but it can be enabled on the AT&T and unlocked models. And if your iPhone 5 is jailbroken, you can enable it yourself. Here’s how.
Do you use an Eye-Fi or other wireless card to send pictures from your camera to your iPhone or iPad? Or maybe you have one of those fancy cameras with built-in wifi? Well, be careful: If the card’s network isn’t locked down, then it’s as vulnerable to hacking as an unsecured home network. And depending on your setup, attackers could gain access to your camera and its photos, and even seize control of the camera’s functions.
It has been two years since Apple debuted the completely redesigned Final Cut Pro X in the Mac App Store for only $300. Final Cut Pro X was a simplified, barebones version of the $700 workhorse that came before it, and Apple managed to lose the faith of many media professionals in one fell swoop. Although Apple has continued to add big features to the new Final Cut over the years, many pro users have abandoned it for other alternatives.
Apple is beginning a new Final Cut marketing push to win back the hearts of professionals, according to a new report.
Apple has reportedly cut its iPad mini orders for the second quarter of 2013 by as much as 20% in preparation for the next-generation device. Shipments of the current iPad mini could be as low as 10 million units during the quarter, according to “multiple sources who provide various components” for the device.
We’ve been waiting for Samsung to launch a new smartphone with a flexible, wraparound display ever since the Korean company began showing off its new technology at trade shows like CES. But it may need to move a little faster if it wants to be the first to market with this new form factor.
A new Apple patent published today by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office shows the Cupertino company has been also experimenting with wraparound displays for the iPhone, which provide a more rounded form factor not too dissimilar to that of the fourth- and fifth-generation iPod nanos.
Having just discovered that my beloved PadPivot iPad stand also works great with a closed MacBook Air (the 13-inch), you’d have a hard time convincing me to buy another iPad stand, especially one which only has a single angle of view, and which only holds the iPad in horizontal mode.
However, the Sne Stand, fashioned as it is from beautiful bent Baltic Birch plywood, is certainly tempting. Right up until you get to its $90 price tag.
I never used the Ulysses word processor. I tried it a bunch of times, but it always seemed like overkill for someone who just wanted to type words. Textedit was really more my speed.
But Ulysses 3 is just about to launch, and I'm writing this post in an almost-done preview version. And man is it slick. The only problem is how to describe it. Forget everything you knew about text editors and come take a quick look. It really is something completely new.
If you’re not using 1Password on your Mac and iOS devices, you might as well just package up your bank and credit-card details, your passwords, your passport and your ID, and mail the parcel off to Russia or China, clearly marked “FAO: Identity Thieves. ”
If you are using 1Password, then you’ll be pleased to know that the Safari extension just got a great update. Sure, it brings lot of improvements under the hood, but what we’re interested is the new animated form filling.
Reader is one of the most popular RSS clients out there for Apple devices. It’s available on OS X and iOS, and up until now it has mainly been used in conjunction with Google Reader. Now that Google has announced its plans to kill Google Reader in the coming months, many are starting to look to alternative RSS aggregators.
Today the maker of the app Reeder, Silvio Rizzi, announced that Feedbin support will be added soon to the iPhone version. Feedbin is a simple, clean-looking Google Reader replacement with an API that third-party clients can utilize.
We all know that Samsung loves to copy Apple more than anything in the world. It’s embarrassing And while most of the copying has been limited to hardware, Samsung’s decided to step up its game on the software front, too.
Yesterday Samsung introduced its version of Apple’s iTunes Store, except it’s got a really bad interface and even worse name. They’re calling it “Samsung Content & Services“, and with a little magic pixie dust, Samsung hopes its customers will think it’s as good as the App Store or Google Play.
There are all kinds of little tricks developers can use to try to get their app to gain some recognition in the App Store, but Matt Henderson inadvertently discovered that naming your app ‘Butt Crack’ can reap unfathomable rewards.
No one launches a product like Apple. There are lines, and fanboys, and cheering, and crying. It’s truly amazing. But what if Apple Stores were stocked full of beer instead of gadgets?
Somersby Cider made an excellent ad which parodies Apple’s product launches… only it’s all about beer. They’ve even got docking stations and different storage options for your brew.
Source: YouTube
Apple’s stock hasn’t been doing too well lately. While many analysts think the problem is that Apple hasn’t released any new products in months, Microsoft’s former COO thinks it’s more of a leadership problem.
In a recent article, former Microsoft COO, Bob Herbold claimed the problem with Apple is that it doesn’t have a visionary leader who is paranoid with details, so Apple’s totally going to start sucking like Microsoft pretty soon.
EA’s on the loose with a machete, and it’s been slashing App Store prices like you wouldn’t believe. The company has reduced 55 of its best iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch games by as much as 90% for a limited time. Check out the massive list of titles below and grab yourself a bargain.
Do you know what a hookworm is? It’s a filthy parasite which hides in your intestine, secured by a its hooks, and feeds on your blood. Ugh. They affect around 600 million people in the world, and can’t be detected with the human eye. Why the hell am I telling your about this in the Cult of Mac? Because an enterprising Canadian doctor has hacked his iPhone to diagnose the presence of these filthy animals.
Gmail is already one of the best email apps on iOS and it’s getting just a little bit better today. Google just released an update for the native Gmail app for iOS.
The new Gmail for iOS app comes with a couple of new features, including the ability to swipe left and right to move between messages, and better editing options for a batch of multiple emails.
Here are the full release notes:
iPhone app downloads dropped significantly last month following a spike over the holiday season. According to app marketing platform Fiksu, downloads dropped 13% to 5.2 million per day in February, from 6.01 million per day in January.
My huge 27-inch iMac is currently hanging on the wall thanks to a VESA mount and adapter, which means I’m intimately familiar with the heavy aluminum leg that used to hold it up. I have been looking for something to do with it other than using it to gather up dust under my bed, and now I think I have it: An oversized iPad stand.
Or I could just give Bluelounge $40 for the Mika, a “Universal” stand for anything vaguely tablet-sized.
The tiny Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus has fallen on some hard times lately.
The bleak financial prospects facing Cyprus has resulted in the govenment having to come up with capital control measures to prevent runs on banks, and keep investors from taking money out of the country. Worse, depositors in Cypriot banks who have more than 100,000 euros in the bank could soon see 40% of their funds converted into bank shares, while those with less than 100,000 euros will not lose any funds – but face limits on what funds they can access.
It’s all looking bleak, and the Cypriot situation has all of the Euro zone panicking. What should Cyprus do? According to one commentator, let Apple buy them.
I’m a sucker for wood paneling my Apple products, and so I’m absolutely going to have to do this: the guys over at RAWBKNY (whom we’ve written about before) are now selling laser-etched replacement keys for the MacBook Pro.
They look great, and Michael over at RAWBKNY says that while they are only designed for the non-Retina MacBook Pro right now, he’s tweaking it so it should work on the Retina MacBook Pro and MacBook Airs soon.
We’ve got a review unit on the way to see how well these work, but be warned: replacing every key on your MacBook is likely to be a time consuming process. $40 will get you a set.
Source: RAWBKNY
Remember the app Dark Sky? If you’re outside the U.S., what you’ll remember is the frustration of not being able to use its amazing real-time rain warnings, which would literally tell you when it would rain on your location in the next hour or so.
Now, the developers of Dark Sky have come out with Forecast, which works anywhere in the world, and will run on Android, iOS, the desktop, anywhere. How? It’s a web app.
Wow, this is incredible. Redditor Kepgnar works in the tech department of a charter school. Every month, one of the departments has to put together a message for the school’s official announcement chalkboard.
Here’s what Kepgnar came up with: a meticulously drawn “Think Different.” logo with an actually working QR code which, when scanned, leads to the YouTube version of the original commercial narrated by Steve Jobs.
How’d Kepgnar do the QR code? They designed it, then projected it onto the chalkboard and traced it. Talk about thinking differently.
Source: Reddit
Over at Asymco, Horace Dediu has compared Apple’s retail economy versus Amazon, and while the results aren’t anything we haven’t seen before — Amazon has annual revenue about twice the size of Apple’s retail revenue, but makes only 10% of Apple’s same operating income on that revenue — it’s informative to see it laid out so clearly. Check it out.
Source: Asymco