News - page 1678

I’ll never understand why the iPad doesn’t ship with the default iOS weather app, and that goes double for the iPad mini, which is even more portable than it’s bigger sibling. Consequently, I’m always on the look-out for good iPad-centric weather apps.

I’m delighted to see, then, that my favorite iPhone Weather app, Check The Weather, has now been updated to a universal version, keeping all of the swipe-friendly charm and navigation chops of the iPhone version, but elegantly blowing it up to the larger display.

It’s no secret that Apple often takes a puritanical view of art featuring human anatomy — the flapping genitalia, dewy folds and turgid protuberances that some of us find so arousing and others find a moral failing — at least when it comes to being submitted to the App Store or iBookstore.

So it’s no surprise that when Danish author Peter Øvig Knudsen submitted his latest work of non-fiction, Hippie 2, to the iBookstore, the e-book was rejected based upon the fact that it contained forty-seven photographs of hairy frolicking hippies with exposed breasts, buttocks and genitals.

What is more surprising is that they also rejected Knudsen’s resubmitted version of the text, which featured all of the photos censored with giant red apples.

Shortly after the iPhone 5 made its debut back in September, the team behind Sparrow announced that it would be updating its email client for the handset’s new 4-inch display — despite its decision to cease development of the app after joining forces with Google.

It seems we could be waiting some time for that update, however: Sparrow has revealed that Apple rejected its latest release for violating its App Store terms.

No, it’s not Egon. HDR Express, the enthusiast-level high dynamic range Mac app from Unified Color Technologies, is now out in a new version with improved de-ghosting algorithms for images with moving subjects, among a handful of other interesting new features.

Middle Earthers, rejoice, as the popular massively multiplayer game based on one of the most enduring fantasy stories of the last century is now available for the Mac platform. Ever since the game went free to play in 2010, I’ve been wanting to hop in and see how it compares to the likes of World of Warcraft, Guild Wars (both with Mac clients), and Star Wars: The Old Republic, but it has only been available for the Windows platform. Until now.

Atari’s released a remake of its 1978 home console classic, Outlaw, which actually saw first life as a light gun game in arcades as early as 1976. Well, Flying Wisdom Studios has developed a new version for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad that looks a whole lot better than the original.

Released just last week, the new iOS version of Outlaw eschews the “pong-with-cowboys” style of gaming for a new art style that actually looks like, well, art. It’s still a 2D affair, with various denizens of the wild west sliding across the screen in a virtual shooting gallery.

GIGAOM ROADMAP, SAN FRANCISCO — Back in 2000, no one wanted to buy Apple’s products. Steve Jobs realized that potential customers needed to see and play with Apple’s offerings before they could be persuaded to buy them. So he launched a chain of retail stores in malls across the country. It was risky, but it paid off handsomely.

Now Tesla, the electric car maker run by Elon Musk, is trying to do the same thing. Instead of a traditional dealership, Tesla is building a chain of car showrooms right inside shopping malls.

To build out the chain, Tesla tapped George Blankenship, Apple’s former Vice President of Real Estate, who helped to roll out Steve Jobs’ mega-successful chain.

Sometimes it’s the little luxuries in life that make a difference. Don’t have a place to store your headphones at your desk? You may need Just Mobile’s new HeadStand. Well, you probably don’t need it, but you’ll want it.

Sculpted from polished aluminum in a way that would probably make Jony Ive shed a tear of joy, the HeadStand suspends your plush headphones gracefully in the air.

Thankfully, it’s been some time since I’ve written about an Apple patent lawsuit, however, that doesn’t mean they’ve magically disappeared. The latest in Apple’s crusade against Google (via Motorola Mobility), leads us to a U.S. District Court in Madison, Wisconsin. Apple was slated to go up against Motorola Mobility with allegations of unfair licensing practices, however, Judge Barbara Crabb has dismissed Apple’s lawsuit with prejudice — meaning the case is over at the trial court level.

Facebook has just pushed out a big update to its iOS app in the App Store. Version 5.1 brings a number of improvements, including a new interface for messaging friends, the ability to upload multiple photos at once, and Facebook Gifts.

GIGAOM ROADMAP, SAN FRANCISCO — Nest Lab’s smart and sexy thermostat is becoming the iPhone of home heating, says its designer, Tony “the Podfather” Fadell.

Speaking at the GigaOM Roadmap conference, Fadell described how a Texas utility called Reliant is using the Nest Learning Thermostat to attract customers.

“Nest is to Reliant what the iPhone was to AT&T,” said Fadell. It’s a killer piece of hardware that’s attracting customers to the utility in droves.

For years, the rumor mill has been saying that Apple is looking to ditch Intel’s processors in the Mac lineup. Since the rise of iOS, Apple’s own “A” series chips have powered products like the iPhone and the iPad. Apple is a company known for wanting complete control over every facet of product design, including the innards of its iPhones and Macs.

Apple has partnered with Intel on the Mac for the past seven years, but internal changes within the Cupertino company could see the Mac move to ARM-based processors in the near future.

As part of the recent executive shakeup within Apple, industrial design guru Jony Ive has been put in charge of a new department that oversees the design of all hardware and software made by Apple. In essence, Ive is the quintessential tastemaker at Apple, a role formerly filled by the late Steve Jobs.

By now you’ve probably heard that Ive isn’t a fan of skeuomorphism, the make-it-look-retro-to-feel-familar design style that has been implemented in iOS under the guidance of Scott Forstall. That’s why Apple’s apps have so much Corinthian leather and stitching, or why the Compass app is designed to look like a literal compass.

Now that Ive is in charge of the overall look and feel of iOS, expect skeuomorphism to start fading away. Concept designer and Cult of Mac reader Adrian Maciburko sent us his take on a new iOS interface design that relies less on the analog aesthetic and more on the digital.

Instagram has started rolling out new web profiles for its 100+ million users today. Like a Facebook account page, you can view all of the photos and info from a specific Instagram user at a dedicated web URL, i.e., instagram.com/username.

Instead of only being able to view an account in its entirety in the native Instagram app, you can now browse and follow other users on the desktop by clicking shared photo links you see on Twitter and Facebook.

Although the iPad mini is well-reviewed and seems to be something of a hint with early adopters, there is at least one complaint: the display isn’t Retina. In fact, not only is it not Retina, it’s actually decidedly lower resolution than even competing 7-inch tablets like the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD 7.

How does the display of the iPad mini stack up against the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD in objective terms, though? Not well, although there’s something Apple could do to make things better.

Gizmon’s remote shutter release for the iPhone is simple, effective and cheap. But its novelty styling in the shape of a roll of film is likely to baffle much of its potential audience.

For a brief period of time, iOS dominated Android in terms of marketshare in the U.S. But now that Android is available on many more cheap smartphones, Apple has watched as Android’s share has explode.

Over the last two years, Android has captured 70% of the smartphone growth while iOS has captured 30% of the growth. However, when you look at just the last twelve months of growth, Android’s growth has slowed while Apple’s has accelerated, opening the door for iOS to overtake Android in terms of marketshare in the future.

The Unmonday 4.3L is a $700 ceramic AirPlay speaker which comes with its own leather carrying case. It is gorgeous, and if you want to use it to its full potential, you’re going to have to buy another four of them.

Rovio has released the official gameplay trailer for Angry Birds Star Wars, and while it blends all the familiar Angry Birds’ physics we’ve come to love, it looks to be the most feature-rich one yet. you’ll find a slew of new abilities, powers, and even a cameo by the Millennium Falcon. An array of Star Wars themed Angry Birds characters are present and ready to take down the Ham-Empire and any Porkside treachery it has to throw at them.

Every time a company makes a Steve Jobs doll action figure Apple rains down a savage legal attack on their heads and gets the company to stop production immediately. So if you’re really dying for a Steve Jobs action figure, you better hurry and buy this one, because not only is it a Steve Jobs action figure, it’s a freakishly crazy realistic Steve Jobs action figure.

Legendary Toys went made sure everything about this Steve Jobs miniature doll look great. Its skin has great texture. The jeans are perfect. Hell they even tried to sculpt its derrière to be just like Steve’s – which, I guess is important too, right? The only thing they messed up were the hands, but not everyone can achieve perfection.

Check out the pictures below to see the doll close up:

Microsoft may have the numbers, but one thing Apple is really good about is getting people to shift their Macs over to the latest and greatest version of OS X in a timely manner.

For example, even though OS X Mountain Lion was only released in July, over 25% of all Macs ran it by October. OS X 10.5 Leopard hovers at a little less than 10%, while OS X Lion is on about 30% of all Macs.

What’s most surprising, though, is what operating system ties OS X Lion for the most popular version of OS X: OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard.

SAN FRANCISCO, GIGAOM ROADMAP CONFERENCE — Hurricane Sandy was the largest event ever documented by cell phones, said Kevin Systrom, co-founder and CEO of the photosharing app Instagram.

Speaking at the GigaOM Roadmap conference, Systrom said there were nearly one million photos on Instagram with the #Sandy hastag, making it the largest event documented by ordinary people using their cellphones.

“Sandy was a really interesting event for us,” said Systrom, who grew up on the east coast. “Sandy was the single largest event captured on Instagram — and the largest event captured on cell phones ever.”

If you’ve had a horrible experience with Apple’s new Maps app, you’re probably anxious for Google to hurry up and get Google Maps back onto your iPhone. The Google Maps app is reportedly in development and should be ready for launch by the end of 2012, but some people at Google say they’re not optimistic that Apple will approve the app.

According to a new report, Google employees think that Apple will reject the app once Google submits it for approval because Apple will want to “keep moving forward in an effort to make its obviously inferior product better.”

During the fiscal year of 2012, Apple made more money than ever before and became the world’s most valuable company. But they also managed to pay only 1.9% of income tax on earnings outside of the U.S.  Of the $36.8 billion Apple earned outside the U.S. Apple only paid $713 million in taxes.

Some may see those numbers and cry foul, but Apple hasn’t done anything illegal. Like a lot of other Fortune 500 companies, Apple keeps their international profits stashed somewhere outside the U.S. rather than having to pay a heavy tax rate for bring that cash back to America. The strategy saves Apple billions on their tax bill, but it also limits what they can do with those profits.

Sony has become the latest company to bring its digital book service to iOS with the new Reader app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Available to download for free from the App Store, the app offers access to all the books you have stored in your Reader library, and allows you to sync your bookmarks between other Reader devices.