News - page 1685

Apple hasn’t been very friendly to the DIY community in recent years. Every year Macs get harder and harder to take apart and repair/upgrade at home. iFixit called the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display the “least repairable” MacBook yet, and the 13-inch Retina MacBook didn’t score so well either.

That’s why it’s refreshing to hear that the 2012 Mac mini Apple announced Tuesday is actually very repairable. “The Mini continues to be one of the most repairable devices that Apple produces,” according to iFixit’s official teardown.

If Tim Cook is the operational brains behind Apple, then Phil Schiller is the showman. Since Steve Jobs passed away, Schiller has been the go-to guy for product unveilings at Apple’s high-profile media events. This past Tuesday, Schiller showed off a number of brand new products to the world, including the iPad mini and all-new iMac.

What does Apple’s marketing guru think about the company’s approach to designing products like the Mac?

I had a great idea this morning. I figured I’d head to the Microsoft Store in Scottsdale around 10am, waltz in, buy a Microsoft Surface, and then be out in 10 minutes. I assumed the store would be empty. I mean, come on, this is a Microsoft tablet we’re talking about, and who goes to the Microsoft Store anyway?

I was completely wrong. Microsoft’s new tablet, the Surface RT, may not do everything an iPad can, but it’s drawing some pretty big lines to Microsoft retail stores across the country for its launch this morning.

This amazing chunk of technology is – unbelievably – home made. It’s a camera, it is milled Apple-style from a single block of aluminum, and it’s called the Hyperscope. What’s not to love?

Microsoft’s new Surface RT tablet made its debut today, just three days after Apple announced the new fourth-generation iPad and iPad mini. If you’re not completely dedicated to iOS, you’re probably having a hard time decided which tablet to go for.

To help you make your decision, we’ve put together a handy chart that compares the Surface RT with some of the most popular tablets on sale right now, including the new iPads, the Amazon Kindle Fire HD, the Google Nexus 7, and more.

Squarespace, the slick website hosting company, has come up with an interesting take on Drafts-style fast note-taking apps. It’s called Squarespace Note, and it is pretty nice looking.

While the iPad mini looks like a terrific little tablet, that’s sure to make millions for Apple, we’ve learned over the past few days that some people are unhappy with its price tag. Thanks to the rumors, the majority of us expected the device to be priced around $249. But as it turns out, it’s $80 more than that.

According to Microsoft’s Windows boss, Steven Sinofsky, that’s a lot to pay for a “recreational tablet” when you can get a new Windows 8 laptop for $279.

Hey, sucker? Did you buy an iPad 3 and an Adonit Jot Pro stylus recently? Then you’re one unlucky feller: not only has Apple released the iPad 4, but Adonit has updated its stylus.

Try not to cry.

Rockstar Games brought Grand Theft Auto 3 to Android and iOS last December, and I’ve been playing it over and over ever since; it’s one of my favorite games on mobile. I was delighted, then, when Rockstar announced today that its successor, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, is also being ported to Android and iOS to celebrate its 10th anniversary.

You know what’s neat about Apple ditching things like Street View from its Maps app? What’s neat is the vacuum which it left, and the apps which have rushed to fill it. WhatsGoLa might not be the first Street View app in the App Store, and it certainly isn’t the best named, but it might be the cutest.

You gotta love Apple (no, seriously, you gotta love Apple to get a job here at Cult of Mac – Leander tests our faith every day during Morning iService) – it might keep quiet and take its time to fix things, but fix them it does. Well, for high-profile problems at least.

Today’s fix is a new iPad charger, a beefed up 12-watt model which should juice the iPads 3 and 4 faster than the old model.

Galaxy Tab; Nexus 7; Kindle Fire HD—they’re all doomed, and on this week’s CultCast, we’ll tell why Apple’s new iPad mini will most definitely sit as the king of all tabs small.

Then, we review a new social iOS game so stellar, it’ll have you clamoring for Game Center friends just so you can get your fix.

All that and more on our newest CultCast! Subscribe now on iTunes, or easily stream The CultCast via Apple’s free Podcasts App.

Note: Some listeners have informed us that iTunes isn’t displaying episode 39 yet, but if you subscribe, it will show up and download just fine.

Onwards, to the show notes!

When Apple began accepting pre-orders for the iPad mini at 12 a.m. Pacific, I visited the store a few times to see how quickly it sold out. I didn’t buy one; I have a third-generation iPad and decided I don’t need another one. But I was curious.

To my surprise, at 12:03 a.m. Pacific, the white iPad mini had already sold out in the United Kingdom. Only the black model was available for November 2 delivery. And just over ten minutes later, it was a similar story for Apple’s U.S. online store.

Having lost its appeal against the Samsung Galaxy Tab in a High Court ruling in the United Kingdom earlier this month, Apple was ordered to publish advertisements in British newspapers and magazines, and on its website, which must say that Samsung did not copy the iPad.

The Cupertino company has now published a statement on its website, and it makes for a very humorous read. Basically, Apple quotes the judge, who said that Samsung’s tablets “are not as cool” as Apple’s, then says that despite the decision, Samsung did copy the iPad really.

Gah. Apple has jacked App Store prices across Europe, rising around 11% at some levels. This is due to local VAT increases in some places, as well as the lower value of the Euro against the dollar in recent months.

They’re here! iPad mini preorders have just gone live. We used the Apple Store app to get our order in, but the Apple.com store is now up as well. Go get your order in, because iPad mini supply isn’t going to last, then come into the comments and tell us which one you got. Me? I followed my own advice and picked up a 16GB iPad mini with Wi-Fi for $329, but I already have a 64GB third-gen iPad with Wi-Fi + LTE. What about you.

The US Copyright Office reviews the Digital Millennium Copyright Act every three years, looking at requests to create temporary changes that act as ersatz loopholes int he law, typically to address continually changing technology standards. This year, the Copyright Office allows jailbreaking of devices like the iPhone, but not for devices like the iPad.

The Office also ruled that consumers can unlock phones purchased before January 2013, but not thereafter. You’ll also be albe to bypass encryption on a DVD to use an excerpt in a non-commercial way, like in a documentary, but it will still be illegal to rip a DVD for your iPad.

The rules seem pretty arbitrary, right?

Back in 2010, Steve Jobs famously compared the 7-inch tablet form factor to the practicality of sanding down someone’s fingers. To Jobs, the average human finger would have to be shrunk by about 25% in order to properly interact with 7-inch tablet apps. “This is one of the key reasons we think the 10-inch screen size is the minimum size required to create great tablet apps,” said Jobs. It was one of those classic moments that showed his intense commitment to Apple’s idea of the ultimate user experience.

Fast forward to today, and Apple still has a thing or two to say about 7-inch tablets. Don’t let the smallness of the iPad mini fool you, Apple is firmly against 7-inch tablets because they are vastly inferior to 8-inch tablets. Apparently one inch makes all the difference.

Iceberg Interactive and Kukouri Entertainment announced today an update to adorable little war game, Tiny Troopers, in the guise of a zombie apocalypse. The update comes via Steam to the Mac and PC version, bringing endless waves of brain munching zombies and undead chickens. There will be special air-drops of new special zombie-killing weaponry dropped to lay waste to the zombie hordes, and special forces troopers to take the undead down. There’ll even be special zombies, in case the normal ones just aren’t scary enough.

The MacHeist Bundle (affiliate link) gets you amazing software for an amazing price, and benefits charity as well. Also? It’s over at midnight tonight.

That means you have enough time to purchase the bundle and still pre-order your iPad mini.

“We’re very proud to end a fantastic fiscal year with record September quarter results,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook in today’s fourth quarter earnings report. “We’re entering this holiday season with the best iPhone, iPad, Mac and iPod products ever, and we remain very confident in our new product pipeline.”

While Apple didn’t see a ‘blowout’ quarter this time around, things are still looking very good for the Cupertino company. Apple is still the most valuable company on earth, and its flagship products are seeing crazy growth in sales. We’ve collected all of the big numbers from today’s earnings call:

One of the biggest shockers at the iPad mini keynote was the announcement of the redesigned iMacs that are unbelievably thin. In our readers poll we were surprised that almost 50% of people were more excited about the iMac than the iPad mini. Unfortunately for all those people eager to get their hands on it, the new iMac will be in short supply when it launches.

During Apple’s financial results conference call this afternoon, Tim Cook was asked whether any Apple products will be facing any significant supply constraints over the next few months. Cook made sure to mention the iMac in particular and said that it will be “constrained in a significant way.”

Apple CEO TIm Cook briefly touched on Microsoft’s new Surface tablet during his company’s earnings call today. When asked about the Surface, Cook admitted that he hasn’t played with it yet, but it looks like “a compromised, confusing product.”

“The toughest thing you do with a product is make hard trade-offs,” said Cook. To Apple, it obviously seems like Microsoft still hasn’t figured out a good tablet experience.

“I suppose you could design a car that flies and floats, but I don’t think it would do all those things very well,” quipped Cook.

During the Q4 financial call today, Tim Cook was asked about the future of the Apple TV and whether it will continue to be a hobby, or maybe something more. Of course Tim Cook wouldn’t talk about any future plans for the Apple TV, but he did explain why Apple is slower to make improvements to the Apple TV.

During today’s conference call, Tim Cook commented on the price of the iPad mini and explained the the iPad mini has gross margins that are significantly below the corporate average. He didn’t say that Apple is selling the 7-inch tablet at a loss, but Apple definitely isn’t going to make as much profit off each iPad mini as they’re used to with other devices.

Earlier this morning a story from Digitimes claimed that the $329 price of the iPad mini is a result of mass production issues with the screen. Considering Cook’s statements on the margins of the iPad mini and Schiller’s comments that the iPad Mini is a premium product, the iPad Mini might be one of the most competitively priced Apple products we’ve seen in the last few years.