who needs an iPad Mini when you can just use a magnifying glass?
The iPhone 5 has a slightly larger display than the iPhone 4S, but come on, no one wants to watch movies on a tiny little 4-inch screen. You could go and buy an iPad or iPad Mini if you really want to watch movies on your iOS device, or you could save your self a few hundred dollars and buy this odd accessory that magnifies your screen size.
Some gadgets pick one thing, and do only that thing. And they do it very, very well. Other gadgets try to pack in everything possible, and they usually end up doing everything badly. This is called the Swiss Army Knife Approach (SAKA), and if you ever wondered why the Swiss are neutral in all wars, now you know.
The ReadyCase takes the latter approach, and like any good SAKA device, it’s way more fun to marvel at the amount of widgets the makers packed in than it would ever be to use.
Oh man. Just this weekend I was poking around my kitchen, trying to find a stand to turn the iPhone/iPad into a scanner. And then this morning I open up the internet and find this, the Nimbus Cloud Dome, a plastic light-diffusing bowl which could double as a receptacle for making cakes.
We’re expecting Apple to announce the iPad Mini really soon. Production is ramping up, and the keynote is rumored to take place next week. By now Apple’s got all the details in place for the first generation iPad Mini, and it’s more than likely only going to come in black and white, but what if Apple made the iPad Mini as colorful as the new iPod Touches?
Gizmodo’s been playing around with iPad Mini concept art, changing the back plating to match the new colors of the iPod Touch, and it looks really good. A red or yellow iPad Mini would look pretty sweet, and because it’s going to be a cheaper tablet, parents are probably going to be buying a lot of iPad Mini’s for their kids at Christmas, and kids love the hell out of colorful products. Do you think Apple should release the iPad Mini in a rainbow of colors like they do with iPods and the original iMac? Tell us what you think over at the Cult of Mac forums.
Last week we discovered the funniest way to play Connector Four on an iPhone. It’s silly and slightly painful, but completely awesome in a nerdy way. Now someone’s raised the stakes and figured out that you can also create games of Checkers or Chess using emoji. If you’re really bored trying to figure out how to celebrate Columbus Day today, now you have an activity that’s guaranteed to take up a few hours of your time.
Sometimes 10-digits can be a few too many numbers to remember or too boring to want to remember. That’s why Sprint has decided to spice up your phone number with its new StarStar Me service. Forget those boring digits and have people call you using a unique name or handle. Perhaps all your friends know you as the baconater and you want to keep it that way. Simply sign up for the number **baconater and allow anyone with an iPhone or Android-powered smartphones to call you by dialing **baconater.
It has been brought to my attention that people still use laptop computers when they travel. Instead of tossing a keyboard in with their iPad and calling it good, these masochists lug along an entire MacBook with them, just to do some work.
For these people, the Stukk stand exists. It is super-light and folds up ultra-small, helping you to not break your shoulder as you lug your behemoth around with you, and can be quickly assembled to keep your hot-running machine cool. Or cooler, at least.
Well that didn’t take long. It’s only been three days since Rovio teased us with the possibility of an Angry Birds Star Wars game, and today, it’s official. Rovio has announced that they will be launching Angry Birds Star Wars worldwide on Novemeber 8th and a barrage of merchandise starting October 28th (in time to get your kids into Angry Birds Star Wars costumes).
Steve Jobs vowed to patent everything Apple invented after being stung by patent suit.
Apple’s overactive approach to defending its patents may sometimes make it look like one of the industry’s biggest bullies, but you may be surprised to hear that the Cupertino used to patent hardly anything. In fact, it only began patenting its inventions after years of patent suit losses, one of which saw the company fined $100 million for creating the iPod.
The DNG spec has been updated to v1.4 by the folks at Adobe, and it brings support for cropping, HDR, panoramas and lossy file compression. With these changes, maybe it's ready to replace JPEG in iDevices?
How do you get a printed, paper photograph from your iPhone? The easiest way is probably to use an app which lets you pick a pic, and then get a print delivered to your door a few days later.
But the funnest way is probably the one used by Adam Rhoades: he prints them in a traditional darkroom, using the iPhone’s screen as both negative and enlarger bulb.
The riot resulted in broken windows at the Foxconn factory.
Following reports of a riot between 4,000 employees earlier this month, Foxconn has acknowledged that two disputes between workers did take place at one of its Chinese plants. However, the company has denied claims of a strike over iPhone 5 production pressures, and says that production is on schedule.
Apple expects the iPad mini to be a big hit this holiday season.
Apple has reportedly placed an order for 10 million iPad mini units ahead of its much-anticipated launch this fall, according to component suppliers in Asia speaking to The Wall Street Journal. The figure indicates that Apple expects the device to be a big seller this holiday season, despite strong competition from the likes of Amazon and Google.
It seems impossible for a new Apple product to launch without the idiots and morons crawling out from their dark shells of ignorance, their subhuman bodies propelled only by the motion of a jerking knee as they regain consciousness for just long enough to write a blog post about some perceived “problem.”
AT&T is once again hard at work trying to win that customer satisfaction award… said no AT&T board member ever. Those of you who have enjoyed having 30 days to decide whether or not your AT&T device or service is right for you, are going to have to cut your indecisiveness in half. Starting today, when you sign up for AT&T service or purchase a device on AT&T, you’ll have 14 days to return or cancel without being liable for an ETF (early termination fee).
Kyle Buckner has been inspired by Steve Jobs his whole life, ultimately choosing a career in design due to the Apple founder’s influence.
Today, he announced a new tribute piece in honor of the first anniversary of Jobs’ passing: a specially designed desk, available in two colors from his website. The desks are a labor of love from Buckner that include a special Steve Jobs logo, designed specifically for this project. The result is a piece of furniture that’s both functional and beautiful, much like the product designs Buckner’s hero was a lifelong advocate for.
The desks are selling fro $999.99 apiece, with a portion of the proceeds going to The American Cancer Society. We took a few minutes to chat with Buckner via email.
Cult of Mac received an email today with some exciting news: Apple is extending the special offer of extra iCloud storage for all MobileMe customers who haven’t made the transition, yet. The extra upgrade was supposed to expire on September 30th of this year, but will now expire in 2013 on the same date.
EA has released a new, nine minute strategy and gameplay video to YouTube, with a voiceover by producer Stone Librande. Watch as he discusses his strategy for creating a casino city from the ground up. He spends time showing off the incredible graphics and fine-grain control the series is known for.
The rocket scientist (yup, he kinda really is) behind last year’s dual-iPad Halloween trick is back at it again. Only this time, having the best Halloween costume in the neighborhood won’t require two iPads — just an iPhone (or Android phone), a special t-shirt and some duct tape. And the results are really, really cool.
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz (left) and Square guru Jack Dorsey (right) are helping shape the future of mobile payments.
Back in August, Square announced a huge partnership with Starbucks. The coffee chain giant will be integrating Square’s mobile payment system into many of its U.S. stores this fall, and Starbucks has also invested $25 million in Square.
While we knew that Square was coming to Starbucks sometime later this year, it’s now been revealed that the partnership is launching in early November. Instead of having to use your credit card or cash, you’ll be able to use the free Square app to pay for your skinny vanilla latte.
You’ve seen Microsoft’s famous Internet Explorer 9 commercial, right? You know, the one with that catchy dub-step song and all the crazy graphics of IE being like superhero fast? They play it on TV all the time and the at movies so you must have seen it by now. It’s not really that realistic though, so World Wide Interweb made an “honest version” of the commercial.
We've updated the Cult of Mac website for Apple's latest devices with high-resolution Retina displays.
If you’re reading this website on a new iPad or MacBook Pro with a Retina display, you may have noticed how crisp the logo is. Go on; take a good look. Zoom in with your fingers. Also check out the navigation bar, and the graphics for Reviews, Tips and How-Tos. See how clear and crisp they are?
That’s because we’ve upgraded the site to Retina — Apple’s marketing term for screens that are so dense with pixels, they’re practically invisible.
We think it looks really sharp. And next week, we’ll be giving the mobile site a complete overhaul to make it pretty for the iPhone 5.
Here’s what the site looks like on Retina and non-Retina devices.
The Cult of Mac logo on non-Retina devices (left) and on new Retina machines like the latest iPad and MacBook Pro (right).
The iPhone 5 is the most complex phone Apple’s ever made, which makes it extra hard for Foxconn’s employees to assemble. There’s so much pressure at Foxconn to produce an increased amount of iPhone 5s that some managers have been beat up by their workers after demanding too much.
According to a new report by China Labor Watch thousands of Foxconn workers have gone on strike due to the immense pressures involved with building the iPhone 5. The main problem is that unqualified workers are being asked to build intricate devices without proper training. They keep messing up and the quality control gets on to them and they get pissed.
We’ve seen enoughAppletattoos to last a lifetime. Most of them are terrible, and some are cool, but it’s Steve Jobs Day so why not show off another one? Here’s one Apple fanboy’s memorial tattoo for Steve Jobs to help “keep him in mind,” which isn’t really our sort of thing, but if you want a permanent reminder about El Jobso, go do your thang.
Bodymedia’s Fit fitness tracker is a hideously ugly, and is supported by one of the most willfully customer-hostile web services I have ever seen. Yet despite this, it actually does its job very well.