News - page 1639

Apple’s Newton platform was considered to be ahead of its time, even though Steve Jobs eventually axed the iPhone-like device when he made his return back to Apple. But even though the Newton was futuristic, it could have been even better if Apple had listened to Qualcomm’s advice.

During an interview with Charlie Rose, Qualcomm’s CEO Paul Jacobs said that he tried to convince Apple to put a radio chip in the Newton PDA during the 90s, but was shot down, so he struck up a deal with Palm instead.

Apple and Samsung are the only two smartphone manufacturers currently seeing any growth in the United States. The pair are slowly eating away at the market share held by their rivals, including LG, Motorola, Research in Motion, and HTC. In the three months leading up to November 2012, Samsung increased its market share from 25.7% to 26.9%, but Apple is catching up with the Cupertino company enjoying slightly more growth.

Just because you’re blind and can’t see what you’re taking pictures of does not mean you can’t use Instagram. Thanks to the Accessibility features in iOS, Tommy Edison is able to use an iPhone and take pictures through Instagram to give his followers a view of his world, even though he can’t see.

The process is mind blowing and seems incredibly tedious, but it’s awesome that even blind people can connect with people through Instagram. And you know what, Tommy’s photos aren’t all that bad compared to some of my friends’.

Source: Tommy Edison

Via: Kottke

Angry Birds continues to be one of the most successful games available on Android and iOS, and despite already racking up more than 1 billion downloads across all platforms, it continues to be a big seller. This Christmas, the surge in Android and iOS sales saw Angry Birds downloads boosted again. In just one week, the title was downloaded more than 30 million times.

Microsoft has beaten Apple and Google to the acquisition of R2 Studios, a small home entertainment technology startup from the founder of Sling Media. R2 is famous for an Android app that allows users to control things like lighting and appliances throughout their homes, and its thought the company’s technology will help Microsoft push its Xbox console even further into home entertainment.

Even for a guy like Steve Jobs, you don’t just wake up one day knowing how to build a phone, let alone the iPhone. So when Jobs had questions about the nitty-gritty of mobile phone design back in 2006, he called up AT&T (then Cingular’s) COO, Ralph de la Vega, for help… but in typical Steve fashion, he became angry when Cingular told him his phone needed to have physical keys.

DockMinimal is – surprise! – a minimal dock. It’s only minimal in looks, though, as this thing not only holds your iPad at pretty much any angle you want, it also works with almost any tablet-like device you have.

Hell, there’s even a hidden stylus.

If you believe all the rumors you read about the next iPhone, then you’re probably expecting it to come in all kinds of sizes and a wide variety of colors. The latest claims that Apple is set to ditch the iPhone 5’s in-cell touch technology after just one year in favor of a new “touch-on-display” technology from Chimei Innolux. According to the report, the move will prevent the interference issues Apple has had with the iPhone 5’s display.

As I’m sure you’re already aware by now, the Do Not Disturb feature Apple debuted with iOS 6 stopped working as it should on Tuesday as the world turned over into 2013. While it has no problem activating itself when it’s told to, it doesn’t understand when it should shut off, meaning users must do it manually or they’ll miss their notifications.

Apple’s promised that the feature will automatically fix itself on January 7, but why did it stop working in the first place? And why will it suddenly start working as it should on Monday? Well, it seems Apple has trouble when it comes to date and time handling.

When I was a kid, magnets promised everything and delivered nothing. Wile E. Coyote’s scheme to feed the Road Runner iron filings and trap him with a giant horseshoe magnet mightn’t have work exactly as planned, but the magnet did at least drag any and every metal object in the vicinity into Mr. Coyote’s cave.

These days, magnets are as strong as the cartoons always promised. And they make things like Mesh’s JustMount possible.

If you’ve been playing Borderlands 2 since it came out for the Mac a while back, you’ll know how very wacky and inappropriately violent it is. If you’ve already blasted your way through the main storyline and side quests, though, you might be feeling a little bereft at the end of your time on Pandora.

No worries, then, as Aspyr’s got your back, with their port of the DLC, “Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage,” available now on both Steam and the Mac Game Store.

If you haven’t been playing Borderlands 2, what’s up with that? Get on it, Vault Hunter!

Cregle, the makers of the iPen, a Kickstarter-funded iPad stylus, have upped their game with plans for a second generation digital pen, called appropriately enough, the iPen 2. It’s also gotten a Kickstarter project, and it’s also going to have an iPad model. What’s different this time, though, is that the iPen 2 will have a Mac version of the digital pen, allowing you to write directly on your iMac or Apple Cinema Display.

The holidays were great for me, but they were probably even better for Apple. Fiscal Q1 is when Apple always has record-breaking sales numbers, and this year will probably be no different.

Apple has announced that they will release their first quarter earning report and call on Wednesday, January 23, 2012 at 2:00pm PT.

CES 2013, the world’s biggest cornucopia of cutting-edge gadgetry, kicks off in Las Vegas in under a week, and as always, Cult of Mac’s team of writers will be at all the booths, announcements and parties that matter, getting you the scoop on what’s coming up in the world of tech.

There’s a lot for any Apple fan to get excited about in the run-up to CES, but this year, we think you want to pay a lot of attention to what’s coming out of Las Vegas in relation to home automation. Chances are, everything from your oven to your lights to your thermostat are going to be controlled by your iPhone in just a few years time… and even Apple wants in on the action.

You may have noticed that on January 1st the Do Not Disturb feature on your iPhone stopped working. Rather than turning itself off automatically, on January 1st many users found out that the Do Not Disturb feature stayed on and they didn’t get any notifications.

Apple’s aware of the issue and they’ve already released some information on the bug, saying that it will be fixed on January 7th.

Here’s a sure fire way to spark a riot on Christmas: give your kids Microsoft Surfaces instead of the iPads and MacBook Airs they wanted instead.

Who would be that Grinchy? Microsoft founder Bill Gates, apparently. He gave his two daughters and son Microsoft products for Christmas, instead of the Apple products they asked for.

File under: Rampant Speculation. Apple Maps is pretty bad compared to Google Maps, and they need to get it fixed in a hurry, by either chaining their engineers to their desks, or buying another company with enough talent to fix Scott Forstall’s biggest snafu.

There was a ridiculous rumor last month that Apple might acquire TomTom to fix Maps, and now the web has sprouted another crazy rumor that Apple might acquire a different mapping company to fix Maps: Waze.

I can’t remember the last time I picked up a proper camera and took a photograph; every picture I take these days is on a smartphone. The problem with that is, I usually end up transferring them to my Mac, and then that’s where they stay. Forever. Making good quality prints isn’t as easy as it should be.

Polaroid is hoping to change that. The company has announced that is to open a bunch of new Fotobar stores across the United States that are dedicated to printing your smartphone snaps. You can pop in, upload your pictures, edit them, and then print them.

HTC China president Ray Yam believes the Taiwanese company’s new licensing deal with Apple will allow it to “take broader steps” and create better products this year. The Droid DNA maker recently entered into a 10-year licensing agreement with Apple that covers all current, pending, and future patents, and ended the litigation ongoing between the two companies.

Smartphones and tablets have been the hottest Christmas gifts in recent years, and the 2012 holidays were by far the biggest yet for Android and iOS. A new study from mobile analytics firm Flurry has found that a record-breaking 17.4 million Android and iOS devices were activated on Christmas Day, leading to an equally record-breaking 328 million app downloads.

After redesigning nearly every product under their roof in 2012, Apple’s probably not going to be redesigning the Mac in 2013. There’s still reason to get excited about updated Mac models, though, as Apple’s sure to stuff them with great new hardware features.

If super-fast Internet speeds make your fingers tingle with anticipation, then you’ll be happy to learn that a new report claims Apple will be including a new chipset this year that will bring 802.11ac networking capabilities to the Mac.

Apple’s iBookstore is reportedly heading to Japan this year, finally delivering its popular e-book store to the ever-growing number of Japanese iPad users. The Cupertino company is said to be in the process of negotiating deals with a “handful” of Japanese publishers to supply a local version of their titles at launch.

Topeka Capital Market’s Brian White doesn’t necessarily have a spotless streak of predictions when it comes to Apple, having claimed in 2012 that Apple would reach an average share price of $1,001 by year’s end. He also claimed in January 2012 that Sharp would provide the display for an Apple HDTV in 2012.

In fact, White’s a bit of a crank. So take the following report with a grain of salt: White is now claiming that the iPhone 5S will come in multiple colors, and with multiple display sizes.

A lot of people want both an iPhone and a physical QWERTY keyboard, but they don’t want the extra bulk. Similarly, some people want a physical control pad, but they don’t want to ensconce their device in a massive case to get one.

That’s the genius of the EX Hybrid Controller for iPhone 5. It’s a Bluetooth controller that magnetically attaches to a special shell on the back of your device: flip it one way and it’s a keyboard, flip it another and it’s a gamepad. And when you’re not using it? Another magnetic backplate snaps on top of it to keep it protected and tidy.

The EX Hybrid Controller is on sale now for $49.90.

Source: iPhone 5 Mod

Apple’s retail store in Paris was targeted by armed robbers on New Year’s Eve, who managed to bag an estimated $1.25 million worth of goods. The attack took place at 9 p.m. local time on Monday, around three hours after the store had closed, Paris police confirmed. Although no Apple staff were on the premises, a security guard and a cleaner were in the store.