It seems like the iPhone 5 just barely came out, but Apple is hard at work on the iPhone 6 – or iPhone 5S if that’s what they’re gonna call it. Starting the new year off, developers have already seen evidence that Apple is testing the next generation iPhone and iOS 7.
2012 was a great year for Apple, and one of the most exciting for them in years. This year brought not only a myriad of new products, like the iPad mini and iPhone 5, but innovative software and services as well such as OS X Mountain Lion and iOS 6.
As 2012 comes to a close, let’s take a look back at Apple’s accomplishments for the year. If you’d like, you can also take a look back at 2011’s year in review here.
Apple was on fire in 2012. Along with the incredible iPhone 5, we saw the first retina tablet and the pocketable iPad mini. This was also the year in which Apple let the iPod touch out to play, giving it features on a par with the iPhone 4S instead of using leftover components from Google’s leftover Nexus parts bin.
But not everything from Apple made it into our top ten. The Retina MacBook Pro, despite being an amazing machine, is still a laptop, albeit one with a hi-res screen and no DVD player. And the new iMac’s most interesting contribution to tech is the HDD/SSD Fusion Drive. Sure, it’s skinny, but who really cares about a thin desktop machine? It’s like making the world’s thinnest lawnmower.
Most of the rest of my picks reflect the fact that high-tech consumer electronics are now as utterly mainstream as the iron or the microwave oven. Sure, us nerds still love to play with the latest crap, and there will always be plenty of ill-informed consumers who are suckered into buying cheapo Android tablets, but these days gadgets generally Just Work, and the differences are in the little details.
That’s why we have fitness widgets alongside fancy portable speakers and implausibly good-for-the-price headphones.
So, should you be in the mood to read yet another end-of-year best-of list, carry on.
Apple has always been against the stylus and touch-based devices that require one for input. Its iOS operating system was designed specifically for fingers — not pens, and Steve Jobs once said “if you see a stylus, they blew it.” But that hasn’t stopped the Cupertino company from working on one of its own.
A new patent application published by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office last week shows Apple’s work on an “Active Stylus,” a revolutionary new multifunctional stylus that’s designed to overcome the common problems with existing solutions.
2012 was a very different year for Apple. For starters, it was Tim Cook’s first year as CEO. While much of Apple has remained the same, Cook has definitely shown that he is a different type of leader than his predecessor. Apple is evolving into something new.
Between four press events and the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, Apple announced an unprecedented slew of new products in 2012. Every single major product was refreshed to some extent, which leaves even more speculation as to what Apple has up its sleeve for 2013.
There have been key executive firings and hirings, heated lawsuits, and scandals. In the midst of everything, Apple managed to become the most valuable company on earth.
While there are many big Apple moments from this past year, we’ve gathered what we think are the 10 most notable stories. Here they are:
Every TV manufacturer on the planet is racing out with a smart TV to compete with the rumored Apple television set that may or may not be released in 2013 or 2014. Rather than waiting to see what happens, Intel is ready to jump into the action with their own device.
According to a new report, Intel has developed a virtual cable TV service along with a set top box that they think will help them win the war to control your living room.
Photo-book printing service Milk has teamed up with overpriced notebook maker Moleskine to make overpriced photo books in the shape of – you guessed it – Moleskine notebooks.
This is an awesome spot by Daring Fireball’s John Gruber: the Retina assets in iTunes 11 are so detailed that the Up Next icon actually has tiny little numbers next to the bullet points. Check it out full-size here.
Via: Reddit
You’ve probably picked up a whole host of discounted iOS titles over the holidays, with big reductions from EA, Sega and plenty more. But in case you’re looking for more, check out the fifth annual New Year’s App Blowout, which has seen 24 iOS apps and games — including hits like Chopper 2, Machinarium, and Pix’n Love Rush DX — reduced.
I’m not sure what I like best about this fantastic lobster-shaped iPhone case. It could be that it puts protects your handset by putting it on the back of a creepy crawly crustacean. Or it could be that it is made by the improbably-named Noddy Boffin.
Or, most likely, it could be the name itself, which hearkens back to the days when just tossing a lobster into the mix was enough to earn the coveted “surreal” tag: “Lobster Mobile Telephone Case.” [emphasis added]
Imagine your delight as a teenage boy who’s just unwrapped a shiny new iPhone for Christmas. It’s probably your first smartphone — maybe even your first cellphone period — and you can’t wait to turn it on and start playing with it. But before you can do that, you must sign an 18-point contract, laid out by your mom, which details the terms and conditions of your iPhone ownership.
That’s what happened to 13-year-old Gregory this Christmas. Before he claimed his new iPhone, his mother, Janell Burley Hofmann, made him agree to a number of “rules and regulations,” some of which you’ll certainly find amusing.
Did you read last week’s Cult of Mac post about copying your Instagram photos over to Flickr? Did you think to yourself “Well, ain’t that something? I’ll surely have to do something about that,” and then just do nothing? Well, I have good news – your laziness has at last prevailed, for there is another service that does the exact same thing, only better.
Did Santa forget to bring you an iCade controller for your iPhone this Christmas? Well, don’t feel too downhearted, because you can now pick up ThinkGeek’s iCade Jr. for iPhone and iPod touch for just $9.99. That’s a whopping 80% off its regular $49.99 price tag.
Some carriers don’t appreciate the simplicity of the iPhone and iOS, and they slap big ugly carrier logos in the status bar that just look nasty. I use my iPhone 5 on Vodafone in the U.K., which is guilty of this very thing. Thankfully, there’s finally a way to change your iPhone’s carrier logo without jailbreaking.
Hackulous has announced that it has shut down Installous, the one-stop shop for “cracked” or pirated apps and games on iOS. The team blames “stagnant” forums and the difficulty in moderating them as the reason behind its decision to kill the service, which will undoubtedly be a huge victory against iOS software piracy. At least for now.
Zynga has announced that it will kill off 11 of its social games as part of a new cost-reduction plan that aims to improve its profitability. Many of the titles have already been closed and removed from app stores, while others will be shuttered in the coming weeks and months. PetVille, FishVille, and Mafia Wars 2 are three of the titles on the hit list.
Thanks to affordable offerings like the Amazon Kindle Fire HD and the Google Nexus 7, Android tablets continue to increase their market share and claw away at the iPad’s lead. However, Apple’s tablet remains king of the web, accounting for a whopping 87% of tablet web traffic in North America.
Two-man Detour Games wants to give the casual crowd a hardcore game, with RAW, a game currently in development. It will hopefully get funded as a Kickstarter project, too.
RAW will be a 2D action platformer/runner on rails for Android, OUYA, and desktop computers, and hopefully on iOS as well, if the project meets its stretch goals. In it, a cyborg juggernaut named RAW must keep running to stay charged up.
Feeling a bit secret agent lately, and looking for the ultimate in protection for your Macbook Pro or Macbook Air? The folks over at ViVAX think they have the solution, with their completely sealed, impact-proof laptop case using a variety of cutting edge technologies. Made completely in Italy, the developers behind the project claim this is the first Italian-based Kickstarter project of its kind, and they’d like you to help fund their dream goal of producing and eventually selling this amazing case.
Got that? The latest Apple ad in which a young girl plays “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” to her grandfather via FaceTime on an iPad mini has been one-upped. This video shows a young woman playing and singing the same tune on an iPad mini. Only this time, she’s using the iPad app, Futulele, to play the song right on her magical device.
Ever wanted to check your email in your car, or while cooking? Running? Eating? Now you can with Talkler, a new app from Talkler Labs LLC. Talkler is out now in the App Store, ready to get you checking and sending email without using your hands or even your eyes.
All you need to do once you’ve installed the app is say, “Hey Talkler,” and you’ll be able to listen to your email, and reply using your voice. You can navigate through all your email with your voice, as well.
Apple and Samsung have been raging a legal war against each other across the globe. While Apple won a $1 billion lawsuit against Samsung in the U.S. earlier this year, the two giants have exchanged blows in Europe as well, but neither side has come out on top yet.
However, a new report claims that Samsung might be facing a serious blow from the European commission that is seeking to impose some huge fines on Samsung for trying to get Apple products banned in Europe.
There have been a ton of great tweaks released for jailbroken iOS devices in 2012. Innovation in the jailbreak community is far from dead, and ideas are continuing to evolve alongside iOS itself. What makes jailbreaking great is the sheer amount of customizability it unlocks. Sometimes a simple idea gives way to a crazy amount of potential.
That’s what this top 10 list of 2012 jailbreak tweaks is about: pushing the limits of what your iOS device can do. Here are the very best quality jailbreak tweaks from the past year:
There were a lot of happy people in the world on Christmas Day. Millions of lucky people received and activated a record number of smartphones and tablets on Christmas Day this year.
According to Flurry, more than 17.4 million iOS and Android devices were activated on Christmas Day, which was a 332% increase above average.
For the last few decades, developers have always flocked to Microsoft’s operating system while Apple’s Mac OS X has been an afterthought. In the post-PC world though the tables have turned.
Apple’s App Store has the highest quality apps for iPhones and iPads while Microsoft has been struggling to get developers to come over and make apps for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. In an effort to sway the tide of the battle, Microsoft is now trying to woo popular iOS developers over to Microsoft.
