News - page 1801

Apple’s new MacBook Pro follows the fine tradition of the iPhone 4 and third-gen iPad in that it has a super high-resolution Retina display: a 2880 x 1800 panel with an amazing 220 pixels packed in per inch.

It’s an incredible display. In fact, it’s such an incredible display that it actually has about one million, seven hundred thousand pixels more than it needs to satisfy Apple’s definition of Retina, leading some to claim that those pixels are all going to waste.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Apple’s new MacBook Pros have absolutely great displays, but they need every single pixel they have, because the truth of the matter is that Apple’s got a long way to go before it catches its display tech up to the incredible power of human vision. And that’s a good thing, because it means we’ve got a lot to look forward to.

As we detailed in another post earlier this week, Apple’s new iOS 6 beta features a nifty new status bar that changes color to match the app you’re currently running. We provided a number of screenshots that showed the status bar in three different shades of blue, and in silver — colors the status bar never displayed in iOS 5.

So how does the status bar determine which color to use? Well, it’s actually pretty simple.

Like he did when he ran for President back in 2008, Obama is seriously leveraging the power of mobile in his campaign for re-election. The mastermind behind that mobile campaign? Steve Jobs. And the iPhone and iPad are Obama’s secret weapons.

Dropbox has issued an update to its iOS app this morning, introducing the ability to automatically upload photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch to the cloud. Version 1.5 also delivers a new gallery view for your images, the ability to move and delete multiple files simultaneously, and more.

Apple attorneys are surely enjoying the latest ruling in the patent case involving Google’s Motorola Mobility unit, which grants Apple the chance of making its case via an injunction. The judge’s order yesterday is one last chance for both parties to plead the case to continue to trial, a trial that was canceled by Judge Richard Posner last week, with the judge ruling that neither party could prove damages.

In the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson, the author tells the story of the first Apple computer, the Apple I, created ostensibly for the Homebrew Computer Club. According the the account in the book, Steve Wozniak wanted to give it away for free to members of the club; Steve Jobs, however, had a different vision. When convinced to sell the computer, Wozniak chose the price of $666.66, one that reflected his taste for repeating numbers, not the number of the beast. This friday, that price will get a hefty upgrade.

There’s no denying Temple Run has had quite the success across both Android and iOS. Apparently, Disney has taken notice of this success and reached out to Imangi Studios (the couple behind Temple Run) to create an official Temple Run version for Disney/Pixar’s upcoming computer-animated fantasy adventure film Brave.

In yet another patent filing, it appears that Apple is, if nothing else, researching the idea of interchangeable camera lenses on the iPhone. While the chances of an idea like this actually making it to the iPhone are slim to none, it’s an interesting look into what goes on behind closed doors at Apple.

With Windows 8, Microsoft is making a strong push for the tablet market, in a last-minute attempt to catch up with the wild success of the iPad. While its clear that the Redmond based company has a long road ahead of it to even catch up with the first iPad, we may see some dramatic progress on Monday, seeing that Microsoft has announced an event to be held in L.A. about Windows tablets.

Star Walk is one of my favorite iPad apps which I use all the time. So I was really interested to meet the people behind this app when its developer, Vito Technology, hit town for WWDC this week. And as their demonstration shows, they’ve gone all out to enhance even further the beauty of their wares.

Rovio’s Angry Birds updates are becoming more and more creative. The next batch of summer fun transports our favorite angry aviators to the land of aquatics. Down in the depths of the ocean lives a mythical green beast whose appetite for destruction can only be satisfied by the souls of the avian unborn.

Beginning with iOS 6, Apple will now prompt you before allowing any app to access your personal data. This includes not only your contacts, but calendars, reminders, and photo library as well. In addition to these dialog boxes, iOS 6 also includes a new privacy section where you can manage fine-grain controls over which apps can use your data.

Apple touts their new 3D maps in iOS 6 as being brand new, but as it turns out, Nokia — of all companies! — beat them to it. That’s right, if you head over to maps.nokia.com right now, you can use what is essentially iOS 6 maps from your desktop browser.

This is really great. Apple has taken the initiative in iOS 6 to update the operating system’s selection of emoji — or visual characters — to now not have some options for gay and lesbian users, including a gay and lesbian couple holding hands. Sweet!

That’s not all, of course. There’s also some cute new monkey who can do no evil, see no evil, and hear no evil, apparently. Hope they can’t smell evil, either, because they are just a few columns down from a grinning, anthropomorphical piece of crap.

I wish there were some gay and lesbian monkey emoji, but I guess Apple had to leave something back for iOS 7.

Source: Techcrunch

Samsung rips off everything about Apple.

They’ve ripped off the iPhone. They’ve ripped off the Mac mini. They’ve ripped off  the iPhone 3G. They’ve ripped off the iPad Smart Cover. Heck, they’ve even ripped off Apple’s commercial actresses.

We were wondering, then, what it would look like if Samsung just went whole hog and decided to design themselves a new logo the same way they “designed” their smartphones and tablets: by stealing their ideas wholesale from Apple.

Ready? Without further ado, here’s Samsung’s new logo:

Gameloft continues to make friends with all the right people as Hollywood seems to be trusting them to create the official mobile games to accompany their summer blockbusters. First they teamed up with Marvel and Sony Pictures to bring the official Amazing Spiderman and now they’ve teamed up with Warner Brothers Games and DC Comics to bring the official Dark Knight Rises to Android and iOS this summer.

It’s nearly Father’s Day, the time to say thanks to the man who took you fishing, taught you to ride a bike, built a radio for you from something called a “cats’ whisker” and was standing at your side when you killed your first deer. And maybe your second.

Or he just used to sit you in front of a DVD, while he microwaved dinner for both of you. Either way it’s time to give something back. And if you’re anything like us, that “something” will be an awesome iGadget. So sit back, add this page to your Instapaper, make yourself a bottle of milk with a tot of rum in it and enjoy the Cult of Mac Bumper Father’s Day Gift Guide. You’re welcome.

Apple’s Flyover feature in the new iOS 6 Maps app gives users are really cool way to explore their favorite cities by looking at 3D renderings of major metropolitan areas. You can zoom in and out to view buildings in greater detail kind of like you’re really there. Right now there are a limited number of cities that Apple has created 3D renders of, but here’s a look at all the cities currently supporting Flyover in the new Maps app.

If you’ve been an iPhone user for a number of years, you may remember that Siri was a third-party app long before it was purchased by Apple and integrated into the iOS operating system. Back then, although it couldn’t remind you to take out the trash or compose text messages, it offered a lot of the same search functionality it does today.

In fact, according to Steve Wozniak, Siri was actually better back then.

Foxconn has confirmed that a 23-year-old worker committed suicide this week by jumping from his apartment in the southwestern city of Chengdu. The worker only began his employment with Foxconn last month. Police are investigating the death.

Skype has just pushed out its latest update for Mac OS X, which includes a number of enhancements to existing features, as well as support for OS X Mountain Lion. The company promises that contacts lists, video calls to mobile devices, and screen sharing are all much-improved in version 5.8.

Imagine that you could just point your iPhone’s camera at your baby and it would immediately tell you his vital signs: heartbeat and so on. Or that you could fire up an app and it could pick out tiny, invisible movements from what looks like a still video. Using a process called Eulerian Video Magnification, boffins at MIT are doing this already.

The iOS 6 beta has been available for four days now, but we’re still stumbling across new features that Apple didn’t mention during WWDC. One of those is the ability to receive government AMBER and emergency alerts automatically on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

Itching to get your hands on the iOS 6 beta Apple released on Monday? Well, right now, it’s only available to registered developers. But according to some, there is a way you can install iOS 6 on your device. The process is incredibly simple, and all you need is the latest iTunes release and the iOS 6 .ipsw file for your device.

Nikon has made two new lenses available for your photographic delectation. One is a dim superzoom for DX (crop-sensor) cameras — the 18-300mm ƒ3.5-5.6G ED — and the other is an equally dim short zoom for full-frame bodies, the 24-85mm ƒ3.5-4.5G ED VR.