It’s pretty clear that the iPhone is going to boost Apple’s bottom line this coming Wednesday, September 12, when it’s expected to release along with an invite-only event at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. Michael Feroli, chief economist for investment firm, J.P. Morgan, thinks it might actually raise the overall U.S. economy.
Yeah, that’s kind of a big deal.
Renowned and long-time Apple executive Jony Ive has purchased a $17 million home on San Francisco’s exclusive “Gold Coast.” The 45-year-old designer behind products like the iMac, iPhone, and iPad is now the owner of a 7,274-square-foot abode overlooking the bay area.
Given Ive’s British heritage, it’s only fitting that his new house features its own courtyard garden and “cathedral” ceilings. Not too shabby, even for a man that’s been knighted by the Queen of England.
Steam, the online portal for Mac and PC games, announced a new beta feature coming tonight to PCs and soon to Macs – The Big Picture. Parent company Valve has created a new way to play games purchased through the Steam store, using the same exact Steam friends list and games you already own.
Once you’ve updated the Steam client, you’ll be able to click a button and play your games with a controller, a mouse and keyboard, or what have you. Valve has made the new interface controller-friendly, designed to kick back on a couch and play games right on the big screen TV you already have in your living space.
You gotta give it to Rush Limbaugh; at least he’s candid. During his radio show today, he decided to talk about Apple’s upcoming iPhone 5. According to emails from his listeners, people are “depressed about the new iPhone.” Why? Because we already know everything about it! The 4-inch screen, LTE, slimmer design — it’s all just meh.
Apple still has a lot of growing to do in Russia, but the good news is that the iTunes Store may finally be launching there in the coming months. The iTunes Store has not made its way to Russia after all these years mainly due to the country’s pervasive culture of copyright infringement. As part of the company’s continued rollout to new international markets, Apple is reportedly in talks with the Russian music industry to allow iTunes digital downloads. Not only that, but the price of a song on the Russian iTunes Store may be less than the traditional $0.99/track rate found in the U.S.
Multiple airlines have already announced plans to support Apple’s digital wallet service called Passbook, and now more companies are jumping on the bandwagon. Accessco, a leading provider for attraction ticketing, will start rolling out support for the Passbook iOS 6 app in the coming weeks. This means that Cedar Fair Entertainment U.S. theme parks (Cedar Point, Kings Island, etc.) and attractions like the Columbus Zoo will work with Passbook on the iPhone.
Everyone knows that the “upgrade” to OS X Mountain Lion severely reduced the battery life in Mac laptops by up to 38%. And while OS X 10.8.1 helped things some, the fix was still meager compared to the oceans of juice you comparatively got on the same machine running OS X Lion.
OS X 10.8.2, though? Much, much better. In fact, according to The Mac Observer, in the latest Build 12C35 of OS X 10.8.2, not only does the latest development version of Mountain Lion give users a bigger upgrade in battery life than OS X 10.8.0 or OS X 10.8.1, but their test system — a 2011 15-Inch MacBook Pro 2.0GHz i7 — now has more battery life than it did running OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard, the previous champ Mac operating system when it came to conserving juice.
In fact, while their test system lost 105.5 and 80.5 minutes of battery life compared to 10.6.8 in OS X 10.8.0 and OS X 10.8.1, respectively, it actually gained eight minutes against OS X 10.6.8 in OS X 10.8.2. Now those are some impressive results. Results I’m now off to test for myself.
Source: Mac Observer
At one time, deep back in the swirling mists of time, Polaroid was like the Apple of photography, not only making the best stuff but also inventing new ways to do things. Now, the brand is nothing but a label slapped onto a bunch of crap by the current owner.
But that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing amazing going on in the analog instant film world. Take a look at the Impossible Project’s FPU (Film Processing Unit), an amazing gadget that marries your iPhone to real, instant analog photos.
Buying an unlocked iPhone and using a prepaid plan can save you a lot of money over two years. Over $1000 in savings actually. T-Mobile is the only major U.S. carrier that hasn’t landed a deal for the iPhone yet, but they’re not letting that stop them from getting new iPhone customers.
This week T-Mobile is pushing their new Unlimited & Unlocked campaign to get future iPhone 5 owners to buy an unlocked iPhone and bring it over to their network where they can save $1200 over two years versus AT&T.
The always sketechy Digitimes has a new report out, and as usual, douse your taste buds with brine, because they say that a Retina Display iMac was supposed to debut this month, but has been delayed because of production problems. They also say the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro wil be out by October.
After a lot of confusion and denials from the FBI and Apple, the real source of the 1 million hacked UDIDs that Anonymous leaked last week has finally been found, and aswas theorized last week, it was just an app publisher.
Blue Toad, an app publishing company in Florida, revealed to NBC News that they’re 100 percent confident that Anonymous hacked their databases and stole the UDIDs from them.
OS X Mountain Lion comes with 35 great wallpapers pre-installed, but what if that’s not enough to satisfy your computer’s cravings for more cosmic landscapes and jaw-dropping scenery straight out of National Geographics? Some of use need more. Like, at least 43 more.
Apple actually includes 43 incredible wallpapers with a 3200×2000 resolution that are hidden inside OS X Mountain Lion. They include stuff like scenery from National Geographics, nature patterns, and cosmic photos from the Hubble telescope. Finding the wallpapers and unlocking them is actually really easy too, here’s how to do it:
Yes, Amazon just released some beautiful new Kindles with HD screens and an ecosystem that could one day potentially rival Apple’s. Not only do the new Kindles look great, but they’re super cheap too, because Amazon wants to make money when you’re using their devices, not when you buy their devices.
If you take a look at the chart above you can see how completely different Amazon is from Apple. While Amazon is content to sell products now and make profit later, Apple makes big profits off of small devices now, and keeps customers coming back with an incredible ecosystem. Which strategy do you think is best? Money talks right?
Source: ReadWriteWeb
Over the past couple of days, Apple’s been busy updating Yerba Buena and rehearsing their keynote deliveries in preparation for the iPhone 5 announcement. The iPhone 5 is a sure bet. We know it’s coming. You know it’s coming. But will Apple have any other goodies to show off at Wednesday’s keynote?
What do you think Apple will announce along side the iPhone 5? New iTunes? Apple TV update? Maybe an iWatch? We want to hear your ideas, whether they’re totally legit or completely whacky.
Click here to tell us what you think Apple will announce on Wednesday at the Cult of Mac Forums
Using mobile Safari’s private browsing mode on an iOS device is a pain, because you have to activate and deactivate via the Settings app. In fact, I’ve always found that it’s just easier to use a third-party browser. But not anymore. If you’ve got a jailbroken iOS device, installing the Privata tweak allows you to switch back and forth between Safari’s private browsing mode within Safari itself.
Itching to get a Retina Mac, but worried the 15-inch MacBook Pro is too big? Well you may not have to wait too long for the 13-inch model. According to one report, Apple’s suppliers have already begun shipping the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, and refreshed iMacs ahead of their launch in the coming months.
What happens if you give ten strangers the same piece of paper to draw on at the same time? Let’s up the stakes. Let’s make that paper a blank iPad screen, and let’s give all the “artists” the anonymity of the internet. This app exists, and it’s called uDraw HD.
Acclaim’s 1999 R/C racing classic, Re-Volt, is coming to iOS this month. The title has been ported by development studio Big Bit Ltd, which is run by Nick Baynes, one of the original creators of the game, who has been teasing its release on Twitter.
Man oh man. This leaked Sony RX1 looks sweet indeed. If the rumors are to be believed, the camera is a mirrorless body with a full-frame sensor (the same sensor as the also-rumored Sony A99) and a whole bunch of manual controls. It also looks like it’ll play nice with proper, old-school 35mm lenses.
When Apple announced the original iPhone back in 2007, Google’s first Android handset wasn’t too far behind. The search giant got a compelling iOS alternative out of the gate before anyone else, and it’s been a head-to-head battle between the two platforms ever since. But how was Android able to follow the iPhone so quickly?
Well, that’s fairly obvious to most. You see, Google chairman Eric Schmidt was an Apple board member when the Cupertino company was developing the iPhone, and so he got an inside look at the device before anyone else. Little did Apple know that Schmidt would use what he saw inside Apple’s headquarters to create the iPhone’s biggest competitor.
With the iPad, however, it was a different story. That was years ahead of everything else, and not even Google had a slate ready to do battle when the iPad launched in 2010. Why? Because Steve Jobs made sure Schmidt knew nothing about the iPad before its debut.
After unveiling its latest Kindle lineup last week, Amazon has updated its Kindle app for Mac OS X to introduce support for new books that employ the Kindle 8 format. It also adds OS X Lion gestures and a number of improvements.
According to Enderle Group analyst Rob Enderle, Apple might walk out a celebrity during the iPhone 5 event on September 12.
Why? First of all, because Enderle thinks that so many details about the iPhone 5 have already leaked out that no one’s going to bother watching the event.
Do you wish that Spotify had a free web version like Pandora? Your wish may soon be granted.
According to multiple reports, popular music streaming service Spotify is gearing up to unleash a full web app for paid and free customers.
Remember the giant ‘Retina’ in Apple’s huge event banner for the third-gen iPad? If you thought that was a subtle hint, then get ready, cause it’s even better this time around. We showed you the colorful signage Apple put up at the Yerba Buena Center over the weekend, and it sadly looked like there were no immediate iPhone 5 hints in the banner’s design. Think again.
Believe it or not, the banner currently hanging from Yerba Buena in San Francisco points to the rumored 4-inch display for the iPhone 5.
A great new photography app, which allows you to add more than 100 stunning effects to your images, is kicking off this week’s must-have apps roundup. It’s accompanied by Giftly, a clever app for sending all kinds of gifts; a new note-taking app called Scrapnote; and a great new update to Adobe Photoshop Touch for iPad.