Even with the iPad eating away at the time we spend in front of the bigger screens — in my case, the iPad is my screen of choice when watching Netflixed TV shows — cable subscriptions still have a ton of appeal. Want to watch the Olympics live on your iPad via the official NBC app? You’ll need a cable subscription; and then there are all the recent great cable shows: Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, etc.
But you’ll need a guide to sort through the mire, and that’s where the i.TV app and your trusty iPad or iPhone comes in.
It was time for another Apple expert witness today, who said that consumers would be willing to pay $100 for three specific, patented features that are at issue in the high-profile, high-stakes court case against Samsung. John Hauser, called by Apple as an expert due to his role as a marketing professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), said that in his internet survey, consumers were willing to pay this much more for features like scrolling or multitouch. The survey, Apple proposes, has relevance when calculating potential damages for Apple due to potential patent infringement. Apple is seeking over $2.5 billion from Samsung.
On the sixth day of the Samsung-Apple trial, deeply granular elements of each company’s products continue to be mined for infringement claims. Testimony from industry experts focused on innovations present in scrolling and pinching gestures used on touch-screen gadgets like the iPhone and whether Samsung blatantly ripped them off.
Judging from the cheap seats of the media bench, the claims appear valid. In particular, visual evidence comparing the functionality of the iPhone’s operating system to that of its rival makes similarities pop out. For example, two-finger gesturing to zoom in on web browsers on relevant Samsung and Apple products is practically the same.
Several iOS device users are reporting an error message that reads, “mail service imap.gmail.com is not responding” today. They’re posting in Google’s Gmail product forum, and user SonaD, marked as a Google employee, has posted the following:
“We are aware of an issue where users are receiving an error that ‘”imap.gmail.com” is not responding’ when using IMAP on their computers, mobile devices, or tablets. We are currently working on resolving this issue.
Not all accounts are affected, so if you have multiple Gmail accounts, you may notice one works fine, while the other returns this error.
In the meantime, you can login to Gmail through your web browser (https://mail.google.com). On your phone or tablet, you can also use your device’s browser or if you’re on Android or iOS, you can download the Gmail application. I realize it’s not the way most of you want to get to your mail, but it will still allow you to get to your mail on both your computer or mobile devices.
Thank you again for your patience as we work on resolving this. We will update this post once I know all users are fixed.”
The advice above is echoed on the official Gmail support page, as well. Until it gets cleared up, use a web browser, mobile or otherwise.
Toopher aims to use your location as a second way to verify you're you that goes beyond a username and password.
When Dropbox acknowledged its recent data breach last week, the company noted that it will be adding a range of security solutions in an effort prevent such a breach from occurring again. One of the technologies that Dropbox plans to implement is two factor authentication, which requires another identifying item beyond your username and password to grant you access to your account.
The second item in two factor authentication can be any one of a range of technologies like a smart card that needs to be swiped, a USB flash drive or other mobile that contains security certifications, a one-time user password token like RSA’s SecurID, or a biometric input like a fingerprint scan.
One company has another interesting option, however, your location.
Andrei Antonov is a huge Apple fan and has been an avid collector the last three decades. He’s got a certified crap-ton of old Apple machines, Newtons, Pippins, even random peripherals and Steve Jobs figurines. The guy has seriously got so much Apple stuff that he used it all to launch the Museum of Apple Technology where visitors can come in and actually touch the machines and play games like Prince of Persia and Mario on the oldest Macs you can find.
It’s an impressive collection to say the least, and some people think it might be the biggest collection of Apple hardware outside the U.S. Who are we to doubt them? Take a look at the pictures and see for yourself.
Never forget that you wanted to watch a movie again.
If you’re like me, you like to watch a lot of movies and trailers. As a bit of a self-proclaimed movie buff, I’m always doing my best to stay on top of the latest developments in Hollywood, and I like to follow favorite directors and actors as they move from project to project. I’ll often see a trailer for an upcoming film and think, “Oh, I’ve got to see that when it comes out!” More often than not, the movie will come and go in theaters and I’ll forget to see it. Very rarely will I then stumble across it in Netflix later, and that’s mainly because there are a ton of movies I want to watch that aren’t available for instant streaming.
When I stumbled across Taphive’s TodoMovies app, I anticipated finally being able to keep track of the movies I wanted to watch on my iPhone. With a beautiful and simple interface, the app did not disappoint.
Streaming Mission Impossible from Amazon Instant Video on the iPad to the Apple TV? Yes please!
There are many premium content services that use DRM to limit where and how you can watch videos. iOS apps like HBOGO, DirecTV, and Amazon Instant Video will all let you watch content on your device, but you’re blocked from streaming via AirPlay or through an HDMI cable. We know, it’s silly. It’s all because of the contacts and licensing deals Hollywood makes with digital distributors.
What if there was a world in which no DRM could keep your content shackled to an iOS device? A new jailbreak tweak makes it possible to stream what you’re watching—no matter what the source—to your TV through the magic of AirPlay.
There have been rumors for the last month or so that Apple is planning to release a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display later this year. While we haven’t seen any physical evidence of the MacBook’s existence, there have been a few Geekbench scores that support rumors that the new laptop will be coming soon.
Yes, this is yet another iPhone tripod thingy, but this one is a little different. First, it’s not a Kickstarter project, so you can order it right now should you choose to. And second, it fits onto your keyring, so you will always have it with you when you need it – handy, because nobody every pats there pockets as they leave the house and thinks “You know, I really should take that iPhone photo stand out with me today. Y’know – just in case.”
Mobile app management vendor Apperian responds to our post on the future of mobile management.
Earlier this week, I took a look at the ways mobile management has changedsince Apple introduced mobile management features in iOS 4 two years ago. The biggest change has been the evolution of what constitutes effective and secure mobile management, which has shifted from securing the physical and operating system features of iOS, Android, and BlackBerry devices to securing the business data that is stored on those devices. That shift has refocused IT leaders and professionals on the need to secure data by securing mobile apps – a type of solution referred to as mobile app management or MAM.
Our friends over at Apperian, one of the major MAM vendors, decided to share their thoughts with me (and you) in a video. Check it out after the jump.
Very, very interesting if true: expect a number of third-party iPod and iPhone accessories to be made obsolete by this move, even with an adapter. It’s also interesting to note that the pins seen in this image resemble traditional USB pins more closely than the pins used in Apple’s 30-pin dock connector. You can see more images of the part in question at the link below.
Go on without me... Save yourself... I'm just holding you back...
Panasonic’s new ruggedized SD cards are neat and all, protecting your precious photos from water, weather, impacts and even super-strong magnets (like the one used by Wil E. Coyote to try to catch the Road Runner) and X-rays. But, like Steve Rogers throwing himself upon a grenade in the Captain America movie, it will also sacrifice itself in order to save your data.
It seems like every time Apple releases a new version of iOS the battery life on iPhones would drop significantly. Now with a the newest version of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, some users are reporting a significant decrease in battery life on their MacBooks after they upgraded from Lion to Mountain Lion.
Our buddy Chris Foresman at Ars Technica looked into the issue and found that his new Retina MacBook Pro has lost about 38% of its battery capacity, which is pretty huge. Have you seen anything similar in your own use of Mountain Lion? What about any other bugs that Apple needs to fix immediately? We want to hear about it in the Cult of Mac Forums.
We love the new Mac Guy in the latest Apple ads. Sure, the ads aren’t great, but he’s just so gosh darn likeable, in an annoying way. Like a cooler, techier version of Justin Bieber. On Monday we announced the Mac Guy Meme Contest where Cult of Mac readers could create a meme of the Mac Guy and enter to win one of 10 copies of FieldRunners 2. All the entries are in and the winners have been decided.
Here are the 10 best Mac Guy memes from the contest:
Remember that Chinesee teen last year who sold his kidney for an iPad 2? He wasn’t the only one: earlier this year, another Chinese teen named Wang swapped his kidney for an iPhone and iPad. Now the butchers who operated on him are in court, awaiting their verdicts.
Aviiq’s new “Quick Charge Universal Dock Adapter” is a handy three-in-one charger cable featuring miniUSB, microUSB and a 30-pin dock connector, all connected permanently to a regular-sized USB plug on the other end. Yes, it’ll cost you $30, but then again, you’ll never, ever leave an essential cable at home again.
We’ve always been curious about just how Samsung managed to sell 2million Galaxy Tabs. I mean, do you actually know anyone that bought one? Have you seen one in the wild? Because we haven’t. Yet in 2010 Samsung reported that they had shipped over 2 million units.
Turns out that there’s a huge discrepancy over the way Samsung reports “units shipped” and the amount of units that were actually sold. In some new court documents for the Apple vs Samsung trial, both companies had to reveal their sales figures for each device in the case. Turns out that Samsung really only sold 262,000 Galaxy Tabs in 2010, and their other sales figures were hugely disappointing as well compared to the iPad.
Downcast, my favorite podcatching app, has added a rather handy new feature with its latest update. Now it can automatically check for new podcasts when you arrive in a certain location. This clever use of iOS’ geofencing tech was first used by Instagram to grab unread articles, but now works for podcasts, too.
Cloud computing has great potential for schools, but isn't without some pitfalls.
The summer break is winding up and many teachers are getting ready to head back to work for another school year (and many IT staffers in those schools are trying to make sure everything’s ready when those teachers return). Over the past several months, many schools and their IT departments have been struggling to keep spending down while also delivering a 21st century learning environment. That discussion has largely focused on how to most cost effectively deploy iPads, new MacBooks, and other technology systems.
One approach to that dilemma is moving away from traditional software purchasing and towards enterprise cloud solutions. That approach may give schools more control over expenditures and offer other advantages, but it also has downsides including the potential to raise costs and degrade the education experience.
All the music you can listen to just a click away.
I listen to music from a number of places while I’m working. Most of the time it comes from Spotify, but I’ll also call on albums or songs I’ve purchased from iTunes, or check out songs Spotify doesn’t have on YouTube. It’s kind of a pain switching between the three, but there’s never been a better solution.
Until now. Meet CloudPlay, a fantastic little app that sits in your Mac’s menu bar and pulls music from all kinds of sources, including iTunes, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Internet radio stations.
Why does the Curiosity rover only have a 2MP camera, along with just 8GB flash storage? Is it some special NASA trick that pulls more info from low-res sensors? Is it something to do with the kind of space radiation that turned Reed Richards and team into the Fantastic Four? Nope – it turns out that the reason that the Mars Rover is using 8-year-old camera technology is because the camera design was specced eight years ago, way back in the swirling mists of 2004.
Google has slowly been introducing its cleaner, richer, more interactive search answers. You may have noticed these interactive “card-like” results when searching for “weather” or “120 X 50.” Google continues to refine its search tools and yesterday announced a few improvements to make these interactive results even better.
A rare Apple promotional video for the original Macintosh has surfaced online today, courtesy of one of the machine’s creators, Andy Hertzfeld. The one-minute clip, which was produced in 1983 by Chiat-Day, features members of the Macintosh team — including Hertzfeld, Bill Atkinson, Burrell Smith, and Mike Murray — who praise their product for its affordability, reliability, and more.
Server monitoring tool Site24x7 offers easy remote monitoring for iPhone-toting IT Pros
Site24x7 announced its new iPhone app this week. Site24x7 is a robust enterprise server monitoring solution by the Zoho group, which is best known among iOS users for its Zoho Docs productivity suite.
Site24x7 offers a range of enterprise features for web servers that are hosting critical interactive web apps and cloud services as well as other mission critical services like internal and external DNS service and mail services. In addition to simple reports and alerts about a server issue the Site24x7 can be used to tune servers for optimal performance and uptime.
