News - page 1656

Samsung might be Apple’s biggest rival, but it’s clear to see the Korean company loves its work. It’s been trying to make its Android smartphones more like the iPhone for many years — that’s hard to deny, no matter whose side you’re on — and it’s spawned retail stores, tablets, and even charging adapters that are remarkably similar to those form the Cupertino company.

Even Samsung’s executives can’t fight their love of Mac and iOS devices. One, Young Sohn, a chief strategy officer, admits to using a Mac, iPhone, and iPad at home, and praises Apple’s unique ecosystem.

In case you hadn’t already heard, Google finally released an official Google Maps app for iPhone on Wednesday night, and I must say, I think it’s terrific. It’s super quick, it looks fantastic, and it brings back all the mapping features you had on your iPhone before Apple gave Google Maps the boot — including Street View and transit directions. Google has also thrown its own turn-by-turn navigation into the mix for good measure.

In fact, the new Google Maps app for iPhone is so good that Google admits it’s better than the Android version. It also promises an iPad version is coming soon.

The United Kingdom is a little late to 4G — just a few months ago, 4G networks didn’t exist. Now it has one, EE, which is quickly trying to expand its 4G coverage across the country. It began its rollout in 11 major cities, and the company has announced today that it will be reaching an additional 17 by March 2013.

Scheduled as a December 13th launch, 1Password, version 4.0.2, is available now on the iTunes App Store.

The updated app brings a host of new features, and is available for $7.99, which is 50 percent off the typical price of the security app from atebits software.

After months of anticipation, Google just unleashed Google Maps for iPhone in Apple’s App Store. It was reported earlier tonight that the app was set to go live, and it’s now available.

After Apple abandoned Google Maps for its own mapping technology in iOS 6, Google has been working on a new, standalone app to submit. It’s finally here.

A new report from Reuters takes to the streets (or, malls, rather) of the globe to find out what folks are actually purchasing from retail shops around the world, including Apple, Microsoft, and Samsung retail spaces in cities like Sydney, Seattle, Palo Alto, Shanghai, Bangalore, Singaporte, Paris, London, Mexico City, and Boston. They spoke to store employees and retail shoppers to find out, really, what’s selling and what’s not.

Guess what they found out? While Apple may be the darling of naysayers who like to crow about the stock slippage or the competition from Android and (sometimes) Windows Phones, Reuters found that the people they talked to and the stores they visited were far from anti-Apple, and, in fact, positively glowing about the Cupertino-based tech company’s products.

Good news for those of you that have been led astray by Apple’s iOS 6 Maps: Google is set to release its iOS app for Google Maps in the App Store tonight. The reliable AllThingsD is reporting that the app is set to go live after internal worry at Google that Apple would reject the app.

If you use the official Time Warner TV iPad app, then you’re in luck. A big update has brought the ability to view On Demand content, including 4,000 TV and movie titles from 91 different providers.

Content is available in HD and standard def depending on the provider, and you have full power to search and browse the catalog right from the comfort of your iPad.

When you think of Redbox, you probably don’t think of streaming movies to your TV or smartphone. Redbox has represented the last remnants of paying to rent physical media, but that’s about to change. Today Redbox announced its plans to take on Netflix with its own movie streaming service. Accompanying apps for Android and iOS will come out when the service begins its invite-only rollout later this month.

For $8 per month, Redbox will give you unlimited streaming and four nights of physical DVD rentals from any Redbox kiosk. Pay $1 more and you’ll get four Blu-ray rentals as an upgrade. Netflix customers can either have unlimited streaming or only unlimited DVD rentals for $8 per month.

Alex Peake leads Primer Labs, an indie game development company that has been working on Code Hero, an innovative game that’s meant to teach students how to code software. The game was said to be in development for Mac and Windows, with an iOS version also in the works.

Code Hero was a huge success on Kickstarter earlier this year, as Peake raised $170,000 in just a couple days. The funding was supposedly going directly towards the development of Code Hero, and backers were promised physical copies of the game.

Since early in the year, Peake and Primer Labs haven’t been responding to backers, and now it’s been revealed that the educational tool will probably never see the light of day.

Intel’s latest Ivy Bridge processor powers Apple’s 2012 iMac, and leaked details for Intel’s next-gen “Haswell” chips point towards the future in 2013. VR-Zone has gotten its hands on what it claims to be a leaked chart for Intel’s Haswell desktop architecture, slated to ship in the spring of 2013. Based on the leak, we may have the specs for what will power next year’s iMac.

Apple UI designer Robert Padbury took the above pic from Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. The location is Caffe Macs, Apple’s world class cafeteria. As you can see, Apple has decorated its campus for the holidays, and others pause to look at the giant Christmas tree outside.

Apple is shutting down iTunes Connect from December 21st-28th to give employees time off to enjoy the holidays.

Source: Instagram

Believe it or not, Black Friday has already come and gone. Pretty soon the Christmas season will begin, and we’ll mark this midwinter festival by getting together with friends and family and continuing to drink and eat far too much.

Meanwhile, we also buy gifts for those same friends and family members, whether they want them or not. Luckily, we’re here to help, and if you follow our festive advice, your gifts just might make it into the “wanted” category.

From now until Christmas, Cult of Mac will be putting together holiday gift guys full of ideas for the special ones in your life, no matter what their interests or your budget. Today, we’re looking at gifts for people who are like, totally into their iPads. Totally.

Using Apple Maps in Australia is freaking dangerous. Like, if you’re just trying to get directions to your girlfriend’s aunt’s house, you might get navigated to a cave full a flesh-eating mutant wallabies. Or it might just navigate you off the road and into the wilderness if you’re not paying attention to where you’re driving, but whatever.

Samsung has decided that Apple’s Map fiasco in Australia should not go unnoticed, so they’ve created a guerrilla marketing campaign to lure people into using a Samsung Galaxy SIII because it has dependable maps.

Glassdoor, a jobs and career community, releases a list of the best places to work for every year. A lot of other websites comprise similar lists, but what makes Glassdoor’s list unique is that it’s based on feedback from anonymous employees who actually work at the companies.

For the last three years Facebook has been in the top three while Apple has appeared in the number spot in the past as well. For 2013 Glassdoor ranked Apple as the 34th best place to work at, while Facebook grabbed the number one spot.

The distinctive startup chime that greets every Mac owner when they start up their machine in the morning? That sound of a synthesizer playing a “slightly flat, by about thirty cents, G flat/F sharp chord” that tells you everything’s all okay and right with your Mac? Apple now owns a registered trademark for that sound. Hoorah!

Source: Patently Apple

New York has reportedly been pitched a proposal that would see a 3.2 million square foot computer chip factory built in the state… and Government Andrew Cuomo is slyly hinting that the proposal might come from Apple as part of a big to start building their A-Series iPhone and iPad CPUs domestically.

The iPad mini is such an incredible device that many of us assumed it will start to cannibalize sales of the iPad early on.

Last month we saw some early analysis that claimed the iPad mini is cannibalizing the sales of PCs, not iPads. However, a new report from Sterne Agee’s Shaw Wu is predicting that the iPad mini is starting to eat into the iPad’s sales.

Qualcomm, the company that manufactures Apple’s baseband chips for iOS devices, has slammed the Cupertino company in an official ITC filing over its response to questions regarding the availability of injunctive relief over SEPs and criteria for FRAND royalty rates.

Qualcomm says Apple’s thoughts on the subject are a “sham,” that the company “should be ashamed of itself.”

One of the better Yuletide traditions is the venerable holiday Advent Calendar, in which each day of December leading up to Christmas is marked off on a special calendar by opening its corresponding door to find a small gift, toy or chocolate squirreled away inside.

This year, we here at Cult of Mac decided we wanted to give our readers their very own Apple-themed advent calendar, filled with the year’s best apps, gadgets, stories and other curios. So each day in December, we’re going to lovingly peel back the door on the Cult of Mac 2012 Advent Calendar to reveal another delicious morsel, something really special that came out this year that we think every one of you should enjoy.

It’s Day 12! That means KitCam, one of the best camera apps for the iPhone.

from Vimeo.

So you wanna be the next Jony Ive and make beautiful and intuitive products that are just like Apple’s? Good for you. But figuring out how to replicate Apple’s design philosophies isn’t all that easy – look at RIM.

To help you out, Online MBA created this two minute video that boils down all of Jony and Steve’s design insights into five bite-sized nuggets. Maybe you won’t invent the next iPhone but if you follow their advice it should at least prevent you from becoming the next Scott Forstall.

Source: OnlineMBA
Via: Gizmodo

In the battle of the mobile platform wars, Android has been extending its lead over Apple’s iOS platform at a steady rate for over a year. Google’s Chairman Eric Schmidt believes that the battle between Android and iOS is similar to Microsoft’s desktop expansion in the 1990s.

Schmidt say down with Bloomberg to talk about the mobile war with Apple and said that with 1.3 million new Android devices being activated per day,  he thinks it’s pretty obvious that Android is winning now.

When Apple decided to give Google Maps the boot and deliver its own Maps app for iOS 6, it teamed up with TomTom to provide users with turn-by-turn navigation on their iOS devices for the first time. Now it seems the Cupertino company may be looking to acquire its new navigation partner in an effort to fix Maps.

Hans Slob, an Utrecht, Netherlands-based analyst at Rabobank, believes there’s a 30% chance Apple will acquire TomTom. It is reportedly interested in the Dutch company’s capacity to make prompt changes to correct mapping errors.

The PocoWool might have the worst Kickstarter video yet seen, making the clothes-fitting-room scene in Pretty Woman look like a Jim Jarmusch movie, but it looks to be the hottest iPhone bag/purse/clutch around.

Logitech produces some of the best portable keyboards there are for the iPad, and it’s just announced another that will also work with your Mac, too. But not only is it compatible with both Mac and iOS devices, its awesome ‘Easy-Switch’ feature allows you to connect to up to three via Bluetooth at the same time and then quickly switch between them at the touch of a button.