News - page 1662

Many don’t know that Twitter didn’t actually invent the word “tweet.” It was a small group of developers at The Iconfactory who thought up the clever moniker when they made Twitterrific, the first real Twitter client. Twitterrific started way back in 2007 as the first Twitter app on the Mac, and the first iPhone version went live when Apple launched the App Store in 2008. Since then, the app has continued to evolve on both iOS and OS X. Twitterrific was the first app to use a bird icon, show a character counter as you tweet, and show replies and conversation threads in-app.

Twitterrific was instrumental in laying the groundwork for the likes of Tweetie and Tweetbot, and the The Iconfactory’s work is a shining example of how third-party devs can enhance a service like Twitter and make the experience better for the user. Without Twitterrific, the Twitter app landscape would probably look very different.

Last week, The Iconfactory announced the upcoming release of Twitterrific 5, a totally new redesign on the iPhone and iPad. I’ve been playing with the new app for the past week, and it has now gone live for everyone in the App Store. After taking it for a test run and speaking with The Iconfactory, I can easily call Twitterrific 5 the best version of the first Twitter app.

We’re continually seeing examples of how the iPhone has exploded its horizons to become much, much more than just a phone. Case (ha) in point: Why shell out $300 for an action cam when you already own a video cam with stellar optics and image-stabilizing, a big, beautiful screen and the ability to upload your exploits whenever you damn well please? All you need to turn your iPhone from video cam to action cam is a rugged, weatherproof case with a wide-angle lens, and the ability to stick the whole thing onto a helmet or such. And that pretty much describes the $150 Mophie OutRide system.

In one of the more visually hilarious moments in the current legal wrangling between Samsung and Apple, Samsung has submitted parts of Apple’s deal with HTC to the judge involved in the Samsung v Apple case.

Notice anything weird about it? The document is seriously worked over by some paralegal’s Sharpie.

Apple shares took a tumble today, with a over six percent loss, making this the largest stock drop in a single day, making it the biggest one in four years. Analysts and other investors are blaming the sell-off and resulting stock price drop on many factors, including a recent forecast by an influential firm that Google’s Android operating system continues to gain ground, as well as unconfirmed reports that at least one stock-clearing house has been raising margin requirements on trades in Apple stock.

The Larklife fitness gadget doesn’t just lifelessly track all the mundane details of your life, like calories burned, miles trudged and hours snoozed away. No, this little thing actually learns your habits and tells you, in realtime, exactly what you should do to make yourself healthier.

Location-based dating. Spooky, right? It’s a lot like leaving personal information on little sticky notes attached to your coat; any random scary internet guy or gal can pick one off you at any moment and get in your face. Yikes!

SinglesAroundMe aims to solve that problem with a new app, available for free on both the Google Play and the iTunes App Store.

SinglesAroundMe uses geographical mapping to plot your location as well as that of other users in your area, anywhere in the world. The killer feature here is “Approximate Location,” a way in which the app will allow singles to flirt and flag their availability in-app, without revealing their specific location. In fact, you get to choose to keep your location hidden, exact, or approximate, which displaces your actual location by about one to two miles.

Philips has joined the likes of JBL by selling Lightning-compatible speaker docks for Apple’s latest iOS devices. Today Philips announced not one, but four new speaker docks with Lightning connectors. Each speaker set serves a different purpose, ranging from a nightstand dock with alarm to a portable speaker.

These speakers should start hitting retail channels this month, but Philips hasn’t given any pricing info yet.

I can’t believe it’s been two years since Verizon rolled out its 4G LTE network. That’s insane considering carriers such as T-Mobile have yet to even launch a 4G LTE network. To celebrate two years of providing consumers with the fastest, most reliable 4G LTE available, Verizon has a few amazing statistics to remind some of us why we continue to put up with their ridiculous prices and constant BS.

Got an Android phone with NFC and ticked off you can’t use it anywhere for mobile payments? Blame Apple. According to one industry watcher, the Cupertino-based tech company is responsible for setting back the emerging NFC market by two years in the United States.

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.

What’s hiding behind the door for Day 5? It’s a handy service called Pocket, formerly known as Read It Later.

Apple is racing to hire former Texas Instruments employees in Israel in an effort to staff a planned R&D center. Not wanting to be outdone, Intel has decided to ramp up their efforts to hire the same former Texas Instruments employees before Apple can grab them first.

A new report claims that Intel is offering the employees “healthy compensation packages” above the standard salary rates in an effort to keep the employees from slipping into Apple’s hands.

Microsoft’s new tablet, the Surface, is supposed to make the iPad and MacBook Air irrelevant. It’s supposed to be the best of both worlds by being a tablet/laptop hybrid. Reviews of the Surface have been mixed, and initial sales reports are indicating that Surface RT might be in trouble, because no one is buying it.

According to new research by the Boston-based brokerage firm Detwiler Fenton, Microsoft is likely to sell fewer than 1 million Surface RT units in the December quarter. To put that number in perspective, Apple sold 300,000 original iPad units on its first day of availability.

Apple released iTunes 11 last week, and it’s a step in the right direction. Its interface is cleaner and easier to use than previous versions, but what Apple fans have really been wanting for the past couple years is an unlimited music streaming service akin to Rdio, Spotify, or Pandora.

Rumors surfaced earlier this year that Apple is working on a Pandora-like radio service backed by iTunes’ huge music catalog. Some hoped Apple would introduce the service before the end of the year, but a new report claims that the new streaming service is nowhere near to being complete.

After Instagram was acquired by Facebook earlier this year, Instagrammers have worried that some changes are coming to the popular photo sharing app. On Wednesday, a big change was made to Instagram that disabled the ability for Twitter to properly display photos on the Twitter website.

Instagram images viewed through Twitter this morning now appear cropped and off-center. The change comes from Instagram disabling its integration with Twitter cards, which is used to display images and content within Twitter messages.

It wasn’t until I’d written the name at least five times that I realized the Amplifiear isn’t called the “Amplifear” after all. That’s not to say I’m disappointed: I’d much rather have an acoustic amplifier for my iPad than a small, buzzing metal box that amplifies the terror in my heart until my emotions are torn into rags and my life becomes a fearful shuffle from corner to dark corner.

If you’re an AT&T iPhone customer living in Pennsylvania, you may have woken up this morning to discover your handset had been inhabited by a mysterious being known only as “Dan.” He lives inside your iPhone and comes out when you’re asleep. While he’s awake, the AT&T name in your status bar changes to “Dan” — but it usually changes back before you get a chance to catch him.

Scary, isn’t it? Fortunately, that’s not true. Your iPhone isn’t inhabited by an unknown being that forgot to disappear before you woke up; it’s just a glitch on AT&T’s network that’s affecting users in Pennsylvania.

When you combine all the titles in Apple’s App Store with those in Google Play, you have a catalog of more than 1.4 million apps from hundreds of thousands of developers. But incredibly, more than 50% of the revenue made by these stores in the United States goes to just 25 app developers.

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This is intriguing: leaked images purporting to be the rear housing of the forthcoming iPhone 5S have just appeared online, and if previous reports about when the iPhone 5S is supposed to enter production are correct, they could be the real thing.

The Boombot REX is a ruggedized, wearable JamBox for outdoorsy types. It looks amazing – and even more so because it was invented by Bill and Ted.

Props to the indefatigable Onion News Network for breaking this important story: Apple is promising an update by Christmas that will fix iOS 6 Maps’ unreliable mapping results by physically altering the shape and geography of the Earth’s crust. That’s a solution that Steve “you’re holding it wrong” Jobs could be proud of.

Source: The Onion

On the evening of Apple’s latest earnings call, David Miller, a 40 year old trader at Rochdale Securities LLC, had a great idea. Apple stock price always goes up after an earnings call, right? So what he would do is buy 1.6 million shares of Apple stock worth over $1 billion, then “flip” them the next morning when the stocks rose, pocketing a personal profit of millions of dollars.

A fine plan, don’t you think? There was only one problem: Apple stock actually went down the morning after the latest earnings call. Now Miller is facing 20 years in federal prison for wire fraud, and his trading company might be going under.

Apple released iTunes 11 last week, which introduced a new look and a number of new features. It also took a couple of features away, including Cover Flow and duplicate song detection. While the former appears to be dead and buried now, it looks like the latter is one its way back in a future update.

Da-duh-duh-da-duh-duh-da-DUH-duh. So goes the familiar tune of the iPhone’s default Marimba ringtone, as recognizable (and yet not nearly as annoying) as Nokia’s Gran Vals.

And yet what if you want to mix things up a little, but not too much? Greg Pierce, the wonder-developer at Agile Tortoise – responsible for Drafts, Terminology and others – has done the hard work for you, re-rendering iOS’ alert sounds on acoustic guitar.

Finding an iPad mini right now is like trying to find oil; they’re out of stock almost everywhere — at least where I live in the United Kingdom. Apple retail stores are getting them in, but they sell out in no time at all. The only option for most customers, then, is to order online and endure the lengthy wait for delivery.

That’s what Reddit user ‘vinlays’ did. And after a painful five-week wait, FedEx delivered the iPad mini to his door. That’s a picture of it above.

Casio has announced its new G-Shock GB6900AA wristwatch which syncs with your iPhone over Bluetooth to bring notifications to your wrist. It will notify you of incoming calls, text messages, and emails, and it’ll alert you when your iPhone goes out of range to prevent it from being misplaced. And if you do lose your device, the G-Shock will help you find it.