News - page 1702

Last month, Apple failed to make its own self-imposed deadline to release iTunes 11 by the end of October.

iTunes 11 is a radical overhaul of Apple’s media management, shopping and syncing software for the Mac and PC that seemingly addresses the numerous complaints of bloat and convolutedness that have been leveled at the app over the years. It also has a much more attractive and modern design.

Consequently, numerous Apple fans — including ourselves — were disappointed when Cupertino quietly announced they were pushing back iTunes 11’s release by a month, into November. But when in November?

We have no inside information on when, exactly, iTunes 11 will be released, but we think there’s an excellent chance that it will be released by no later than the end of next week, and most likely next Wednesday. Here’s why.

As part of a court ruling in the U.K. Apple has been forced to publish a public apology to Samsung on the U.K. Apple website. When Apple originally published the apology on the U.K. homepage, some clever coding pushed the apology statement below the browser window.

This morning an update to the Apple U.K. homepage has removed the coding that was hiding the apology unless a user’s browser window was extremely tall.

Despite launching the fastest-selling iPhone to date just over a month ago, in addition to a new iPad mini that’s sure to be a big hit this Christmas, Apple is suffering from a surprising yet swift decline in stock value. Just weeks after reaching a $705 high, it now sits at its lowest price in over five months.

Many will dismiss the decline as a rare dip, confident that Apple will bounce back bigger and stronger than before. But others are questioning its ability to do so with ever increasing competition from its rivals. ABC Nightline asks whether Apple has “lost its shine.”

The “world’s first panoramic monitor” might not sound appropriate for the Cult of Mac, but when you find out about some of its tricks, you’ll see why I’m bothering to tell you about it.

The monitor is from LG, measures 29-inches on the diagonal and has a wide, wide aspect ratio of 21:9, and a rather lame resolution of 2,560 x 1,080.

According to a new rumor, iPhone assembler Foxconn Electronics is discussing plans to build manufacturing plants in the U.S. Possible locations for the new plants include Detroit and Los Angeles, but Foxconn may be conducting evaluations in other cities as well.

Foxconn and Apple have come under fire over the last few years for terrible working conditions in assembly plants. The assembly of the iPhone and iPad being conducted in China rather than the U.S. was even a debate point in the recent presidential election. Bringing manufacturing jobs into the U.S. may help heal Foxconn’s reputation.

Apple may have just launched the EarPods, undoubtedly the Cupertino company’s best earphones yet, but it’s already hard at working on something better. In a new patent filing, Apple demonstrates its work towards a new set of headphones that would have built-in loudspeakers. The design allows you to quickly switch between headphones for personal use, and a set of speakers for sharing your favorite tracks with your friends.

Still looking for an iPhone 5 dock? Yeah, me too. But I have found a BIY dock that not only looks cool but is pretty much free. If you have a printer and a sheet of thick paper around the house that is. And you don’t mid paying for the PDF.

We’re used to cheap software mimicking expensive hardware, and nowhere has that been truer than with tilt-shift photography. What was once an effect needing super-expensive and unwieldy architectural camera gear is now a free filter in many free apps.

But the trend sometimes goes the other way. Here’s the Tilt Shift camera from Photojojo, an actual physical digital camera with a tilt-shift lens. For $150.

In the age of tiny, efficient Thunderbolt and Lightning ports, stuffing a full-sized USB plug into a Mac now seems so very very old fashioned. Still, USB is still the oversized and awkward norm, and stuff them into our Macs we must.

Which is where Satechi’s “Premium 4-Port Aluminum USB 2.0 Hub” comes in.

Fantastical is an awesome little calendar app originally developed for OS X by Flexibits. It sits in your Mac’s menu bar and provides you with quick and easy access to your appointments and reminders. You’re probably already familiar with it; we’ve covered it a number of times here on Cult of Mac, and we’re big fans.

Which is why we’re pleased to tell you that Fantastical is coming to your iPhone.

The wait is finally over. Your favorite game and your favorite movie have joined forces to become one in what looks like the most exciting addition to the series yet. I’m talking, of course, about Rovio’s Angry Birds Star Wars, which is now available to download on your Android and iOS devices.

Popular microblogging service Tumblr just pushed out a huge update for its official iPhone app. Tumblr on the iPhone has always been a web-reliant experience, but today’s update introduces a new app that has been rewritten from the ground up to be completely native.

The Dashboard view is totally new and there’s a nifty Notifications panel with fluid animations and swiping gestures throughout the whole app.

Full list of changes:

Earlier this year, Realmac Software and Impending released Clear, a bold and innovate to-do list app for the iPhone. Despite the seemingly never-ending supply of task managers in the App Store, Clear managed to set itself apart with its unique interface, gestures and clean design.

Fast forward to today, and Realmac Software is bringing Clear to the Mac. How does such a gesture-driven app live and breathe on the desktop? On the Mac, Clear is a fresh and enjoyable way to manage tasks. It’s apps like Clear that show the convergence between iOS and OS X.

Just like Blue Microphone’s non-digital Spark, the new, Digital Spark microphone has been put together with an armful of we’re-not-playing-around components and features. Things like a beefed-up condenser capsule, a Focus selector that toggles between a low-frequency bias and a detail bias, and an adjustable desk stand with shock mount. But this Spark is built for iPads (or iPhones); though its USB connector means it’ll work just fine with your MacBook Pro, iMac, Sony Vaio, Samsung Galaxy Tab or anything else with a USB input.

We reported on Negative Nimbus a couple of weeks ago, calling it a sweet-natured iPad game with a horribly sad raincloud, the aforementioned Nimbus.

Tomorrow, it’ll be updated to a universal app, which will make it playable on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. You can also unlock a new world that has 8 new additional levels, more comics, new hats, and more achievements, which can only be a good thing.

The App Store app is a fantastic thing, letting you walk into an Apple Store, scan a product on the shelf, pay for it with your iTunes account, and walk out. I ordered my iPad mini from the iPhone app this past week, as well. The app has been updated today, adding the ability to buy new gift cards and email them to anyone right from within the app. The gift cards can then be integrated into the new Passbook app in the US.

According to Cult of Mac staff, however, the Passbook functionality is not working yet, and we speculate it may be a server issue.

Siri, Apple’s voice assistant, is now also able to help you find prices of and shop for Apple products if you have a Siri-enabled device.

The iPad mini is rather perfectly sized for an e-reader: light, easy to hold, super thin. What better way to show off your reading street cred with a set of luxuriously tasty book-themed images? They’re perfectly sized for the iPad mini, with higher resolution options for its larger, more Retina-enabled bigger brothers, too.

The year was 1983. Arcades were the primary way I played video games, unless you count the Magnavox Odyssey pong clone sitting on our TV at home. I didn’t.

I remember stepping into the local arcade, a pocket full of quarters, and seeing this…amazing game. It was like a animated movie! The characters moved fluidly! I stepped forward.

Dragon’s Lair had my entire pocket of quarters within 30 minutes.

Now we can all relive the glory without the quarters via the Mac, as Dragon’s Lair comes out for the Mac platform tomorrow, November 8, 2012 for $9.99.

Tweetbot for Mac received a little update today in the Mac App Store. The developers at Tapbots have added integration with Safari’s Reading List feature. Like Pocket and Instapaper, you can now save links found in Tweetbot and send them directly to Apple’s iCloud-based read later service. You can login to Reading List using your iCloud credentials in the Tweetbot for Mac preferences pane. The articles you save can be viewed directly in Safari on any iOS 6 or OS X Mountain Lion device.

Popular todo list app Clear has been updated on the iPhone with several new features and improvements. The folks at Realmac Software have added iCloud syncing for keeping tasks updated across devices—the feature will come in handy when the Mac version of Clear ships tonight. A new gesture for quickly accessing multiple lists has also been added. You can now quickly add text from your iOS clipboard to new tasks by shaking your device while Clear is open.

Full list of changes:

Oregon-based case and accessory maker Grove has announced its new wool sleeve for Apple’s smaller tablet. Wool padding protects the mini inside a protective, bamboo exterior. Grove has designed its sleeve to fit an iPad mini with or without Apple’s Smart Cover.

Apple’s had dreams of making a car for a long time. Rumors have even floated around that Steve Jobs really wanted to make an iCar and that Apple considered making an iCar before they made the iPhone, but decided against it.

Well, if you can’t make your own car, you might as well team up with one of the most luxurious car companies in the world. In a statement today, Ferrari announced that Eddy Cue, a senior vice president at Apple, will be joining their board of directors.

Shadowgun: Deadzone is just about ready to exit public beta and frag its way to primetime. Many of you have already been enjoying the beta and perfecting your skills, but for those of you who’ve refrained from playing gaming guinea pig, the full version is set to hit Android and iOS on November 15th.

One of my favorite lines used by people defending Samsung during their $1 billion legal beatdown from Apple was the claim that Apple doesn’t have a patent on glass rectangles with rounded corners. “You can’t patent the rectangle,” they would say.

Yeah, well Apple just did. Kind of.

After a review by a patent examiner on Tuesday, the United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded Apple an additional design patent for the iPad’s “ornamental design.” The design feature cited in US Patent D607,286 for a “Portable display device” pretty much appears to be a literal rounded rectangle.