News - page 1725

If you preordered an iPad mini directly from Apple.com, you have probably noticed that you have yet to receive a shipping confirmation from Apple… and it’s getting close to the wire.

Considering the fact that Apple is guaranteeing a Friday, November 2nd delivery for initial preorders, and that Apple usually ships out new products directly from the factories in China, that might have you concerned.

There’s no reason to panic. Your iPad mini has, in all likelihood, already shipped, and is right now sitting in a delivery center in the United States, just waiting for Apple to give the okay to have it delivered to your door.

Here’s how to check on your iPad mini, even if Apple hasn’t sent you a shipping reference yet.

Nike has announced a duo of new colors for its Nike+ FuelBand, which are now available to purchase from Apple retail stores across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom from today. The new colors are “Black Ice” and “White Ice,” and like the other models, they’re priced at $149.95.

Every launch of a new Apple product, some lucky S.O.B. slips through Apple’s steadfast delivery net and gets their new gadget early.

This time, that S.O.B. is a customer in France who ordered his white iPad mini from French reseller Darty, and received his shipment today.

China Telecom has reportedly finalized its talks with Apple over the iPhone 5 ahead of the smartphone’s debut in China in December. The carrier told reporters that its support for the iPhone 5 is now a “foregone conclusion,” while sources claim it will get the device at the same time as, or possibly even before than, China Unicom.

During its iPad mini unveiling last week, Apple showed off an awesome video from the iPhone 5 launch day on September 22. The clip featured an uplifting soundtrack by The Rival, and lots of happy customers who had just picked up Apple’s latest smartphone.

If you didn’t see it during the keynote, you can now watch it online; Apple’s posted the video to the iPhone 5 page of its website, but you can see it below.

With Halloween almost upon us, what better way to celebrate than to scare yourself silly with some of the most terrifying games the App Store has to offer? We’ve put together a selection of the best horror titles that will have you watching your back this October 31, with some big hits like Walking Dead, Rage HD, Dead Space, and more.

In December, Apple will launch the iPhone 5 in December, the world’s largest mobile market. Before it can do that, however, the handset needs regulatory approval. Two devices have just been given the go-ahead by China’s State Radio Management, one of which is destined for China Unicom and China Mobile, which the other is headed to China Telecom.

iPad mini reviews are upon us. Apple’s embargo recently lifted and handpicked publications have exposed their early reviews for all to see. Apple has already sold out of initial pre-order stock, and the company’s smallest tablet will be available in limited supply at retail stores this weekend. The mini is expected to rock Apple’s bottom line this holiday season, and reviewers are gushing about how the bar has been set higher for the rest of the tablet market (again).

We’ve scoured the internet to find early reviews of the iPad mini, and they have been collected below for your viewing pleasure. Cult of Mac’s official review will be published soon.

The first iPad Mini and iPad 4 new iPad pre-orders are set to arrive in customers’ homes on November 2, but Apple has posted the official firmware for both the iPad Mini and its larger brethren early.

Beamr is one of those mouth-watering iPhone apps that wows not so much because of what it is, but because of what it could be.

The basic idea is very cool: Delve into your photo library, select a handful of photos and choose a cover shot. The app will then superimpose some text and graphics over the cover (you can change the cover text).

But the real magic happens when you share your little faux-magazine. Beamr uses “patent-pending JPEGmini optimization technology” to package and deliver the “magazine”; the result is very quick delivery, and the images can be saved by the recipient at full resolution (for example, 8MP if you shot the pictures with an iPhone 4S/5).

I yearn for more, though. The photos can’t be arranged in any way, and there’s only one style of cover. Also, the app is designed for the iPhone, not the iPad(s) on which it would really shine. Still, it’s a neat trick and worth checking out. And hopefully there’ll be updates that build it out in the near future.

You’ve got a bit under six days left to get your grubby little Temple Run mitts on the first issue of the new Temple Run comic book, published by Ape Entertainment and Imangi Studios. This limited collector’s edition is only available for a limited time and is print to order only, which means that come November 5th, you’ll no longer be able to order it again.

Unless you buy it from someone who ordered it now, of course.

Today, there’s word that Apple is now accepting high-resolution music files for iTunes, perhaps in advance of selling music in such a format. Apple is asking sound engineers for 96 kHz, 24-bit WAV files, possibly to process it’s own “mastered for iTunes” versions, but also to perhaps start selling music in “better than CD quality” resolution and format.

Looks like iMessage is having some more trouble after yesterday’s news that Apple iOS guru Scott Forstall is leaving the company. 5 days ago we reported a widespread iMessage outage that affected many of our readers around the world for hours. The issue was never addressed by Apple, but now we’re getting word that another outage is plaguing iCloud services.

Legendary entrepreneur and businessman Mark Cuban knows a thing or two about the TV industry. Besides owning the Dallas Mavericks, Cuban founded HDNet Movies and is subsequently the chairman of AXS TV on the HDTV network. He also appears in Shark Tank, a reality TV show starring prominent entrepreneurs and business executives.

It’s no secret that Apple has been trying to reach agreements with Hollywood to create a totally new kind of TV experience. Negotiations have reportedly been ongoing for quite some time. In a recent interview, Cuban explained how Apple’s software integration with the cable companies would be a “game over” move. The TV industry would never be the same.

“Where the heck is iTunes 11?!?” That’s the question many have been asking since it’s now the end of October and Apple has yet to fulfill its promise to release the new software. Back at the iPhone 5 media event last month, Apple unveiled the all-new iTunes 11 and said that it would arrive in October. The month has come and gone without a word from Apple… until now.

Apple has just confirmed via an official spokesperson that the release of iTunes 11 has been pushed back until November. Apparently there are some kinks that still need to be ironed out.

There’s never been a better time to get fit, thanks to the wealth of fitness tracker options available to work with your iPhone. That’s not strictly true — first, it’s always a good time to get fit. And second, the more choices there are for fitness trackers, the more opportunity there is for procratination.

Still, the Striiv is a welcome addition.

Office Drop is kind of like a mission-specific Dropbox. It comes with Mac and iOS clients, and lets you upload and share your various documents between them. However, it has one big stinking extra which could be amazingly useful to some people: It performs automatic OCR (optical character recognition) on your stored documents.

When it comes to Bluetooth speakers, there’s one company’s product against which all others are measured: Jawbone’s iconic Jambox.

There’s a reason for that. Jawbone entered a pretty much empty market segment with a new product that they polished to hell. The Jambox doesn’t sound like sonic nirvana, but it sounds pretty good, and the rest of the details — from the way it feels in the hand, to the way it’s boxed, to the Nintendo-like bleeps and bloops it makes when you pair it or skip a track — are just polished to hell.

Just like with Apple products, though, that polish comes at a premium: the MSRP of the Jambox is $199.99, which is a lot of money for most people. Enter the CUBEDGE EDGE.sound, a new Bluetooth speaker that attempts to do everything that the Jambox does for an MSRP of $50 less.

Purple Haze, is in my brain… Ah, sorry. Just singing a little Hendrix there. But — completely coincidentally — this next app brings purple haze correction to the iPhone. If you want to listen to Jimi Hendrix songs as if played on an un-amplified classical guitar, then this may be the app for you.

Google is still the champion when it comes to search, but their iOS app has lacked a lot of the neat features that you can use on Android. A big update to the Google Search app has fixed all that though and brought improved voice search capabilities to iOS.

The update is pretty significant for iPhone 5 users and can be downloaded free via the App Store. The biggest update to the app is that users can now can use natural language to control Google Search as well as listen to Google Search dictate the results of your query back to you.

Jony Ive and Steve Jobs made a lot of gorgeous Apple products together, but even they dropped a few duds. For proof, look no further than the image above: The Flower Power iMac.

Since it’s introduction in 1998, the first generation iMac received rave reviews for it’s beautiful design that featured a translucent plastic case. After a few years Apple starting getting crazy with the plastic casing and came up with the Flower Power version of the iMac and other variants. The Bondi Blue iMac was great, but the Flower Power iMac has to be Apple’s ugliest product of all-time.

Source: CNNMoney

Just Mobile’s new Alurack is a clever solution to the question “Where do I put my stupid MacBook while I’m using it with an external monitor?”

The Alurack’s answer is “Hang it,” either from the back of a Cinema Display or from your iMac.

Even though he was fired from Apple yesterday, Scott Forstall will still be an Apple employee until some point in 2013 and work as an advisor to Tim Cook. His new position is really just to prevent him from jumping ship quickly and going to another company, but Apple can’t keep him forever. At some point in 2013, Scott Forstall will be free to join any company he chooses. So which company should he go to?

Forstall’s brother works for Microsoft, but Scott’s penchant for skeuomorphic software might not fit well with Microsoft’s Metro UI. Google and Samsung are two other obvious choices because they’re big competitors with Apple. Or Forstall could choose to create his own company like Tony Fadell did with Nest after he left Apple. What company do you think would be the best fit for Scott?

Click here to go to the Cult of Mac Forums and talk about possible destinations for Scott Forstall

Skeuomorphism, or the tendency to deliberately make something new look like something old and familiar. Some people love it, some people hate it and think it’s tacky.

No matter how you feel, his love for skeuomorphism is one of many reasons that former iOS chief Scott Forstall was fired yesterday. Replacing him is Apple’s Senior VP of Design, Jonathan Ive, who will lead a new Human Interface Group in Apple… and whom reportedly loathes skeuomorphism with every fiber of his being.

All that fake leather stitching, those hideous textures, those bizarre font choices in iOS’s stock apps? If Ive gets his way — and we think he will — they’re all about to change.

Here are the eight skeuomorphic apps in iOS 6 we hope Jony Ive is going to change in iOS 7, along with some third-party apps we hope he takes inspiration from.

Just when you thought an iPhone or iPad dock had been built into every possible household object, here comes the iRocking Chair. In looks, it's a pretty traditional rocker, but it has some surprises built in. Not least is the fact that it can charge an iPad 3.