Business Macs that don't include centrally managed antivirus protection may be ticking time bombs
The after effects of the Flashback Trojan are going to be felt for a long time to come. Although there’s been the occasional Mac malware announcement over the past few years, none was ever found to be rampant in the wilds of the Internet. Most were easily avoided by Apple’s basic security elements or by simple user actions like telling Safari not to immediately open so-called “safe” files after downloading them.
As a result, the Flashback Trojan caught a lot of people off guard – including individual Mac owners and some IT professionals who ought to have known better. It also highlighted deficiencies on the part of Apple when it comes to security.
What's better than 1 million dollars? A billion dollars. (photo via The New York Times)
In what is being called the largest mobile app acquisition in history, Facebook’s $1 billion buyout of Instagram is landing the iPhone app’s founders in a boatload of cash. Instagram’s two co-founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, will cash in $500 million combined as a result of getting in bed with the social network behemoth. Quite the pay day for an app that’s been in the App Store for barley two years.
Now that Mark Zuckerberg controls your hipster, vintage-inspired photos that you took with Instagram, you might be feeling weighed down with the fear that your favorite photography app will see some major changes. I cried for a few minutes, then I realized that I never used Instagram to edit photos because its filters were actually very limited and pretty crappy. There’s tons of better apps out there. If for whatever reason you’re scared to stick with the new Instagram controlled by Facebook, there are plenty of alternatives to Instagram… and in many ways most of them are better. Take a look at these five awesome Instagram alternatives.
Remember those funny animated videos from Taiwan, one of which depicted Steve Jobs as a throwing-star toting ninja? The videos were always silly yet slightly informative, but recent news about the company behind them says they might be a thing of the past. Next Media Ltd is trying to sell off their animation division for $500million after suffering heavy cash losses over the past year or so, which may spell an end to funny animated news.
Banjo is busy, and shows me rather a lot of strangers
Banjo is an iPhone app that aggregates pretty much all of your social networks’ data in one place. And a new update has just added Instagram, making it pretty much the most comprehensive option yet. There is a problem, however: While the app itself is dead easy to set up, and even works with iOS 5’s own Twitter integration, it is a complete mess in use.
Did you just hear the news that Facebook paid a BILLION dollars for Instagram? Yeah, it’s crazy. I’m still dumbfounded by the news and mourning the loss of one of my favorite social networks. Sure, Zuck says that Instagram is going to operate as an independent entity and that they’re not going to make any changes. But I’m not buying it. How long will it be til Instagram is pressured to start monetizing their 30million+ users? And how are they gonna make that cheddar? Convert it in to a Facebook esque interface with recommendations and pop-up ads?
My friends, the world is a changing, and Instagram as we know it might not ever be the same again. Maybe I’m panicking worse than the First Class passengers on the Titanic. Maybe everything’s fine. Maybe it’s not. If you’re not certain about the future of Instagram but you want to keep all your sexy faux-vintage photos in your digital safe, there’s an easy-to-use service that will export all of your photos from Instagram. It’s called Instaport.me, and it’s actually pretty awesome.
Apple's e-textbooks and iPad in education initiative leaves colleges largely out of the picture - for good reasons
Apple’s e-textbook initiative, which the company launched in January along with iBooks Author and a revamped iTunes U service is aimed at K-12 schools rather than higher education. Higher education has a different set of needs when it comes to textbooks, study, and reference materials. There are also big differences in device/platform selection between K-12 and the college market.
In fact, these differences are probably a big part of why Apple decided to focus the majority of its e-textbook (and, by extension its iPad in education) effort on the K-12 market. It’s a market that yields Apple more growth opportunities now and down the road.
On Friday AT&T made an announcement that surprised many of us who had given up waiting: customers with an out-of-contract iPhone can unlock it to work with any other GSM SIM — like from T-Mobile. Now the official unlock is here, and the process is actually pretty simple.
Before you attempt to unlock you need to make sure your account isn’t in a longterm contract, your iPhone isn’t on a contract, and that your account is in good standing with AT&T. After that, the process is pretty straightforward.
Now you can post to multiple social networks at once!
Ever since Apple integrated Twitter into iOS 5, many have been clamoring to also have Facebook integration for posting status updates and photos anywhere in the OS. There was reportedly some drama between Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs over the Ping debacle and iOS 5 integration. The two companies just can’t seem to get along.
Whether Facebook ever makes its way to iOS or not, a new jailbreak tweak brings integration with the social network giant right now. Fusion lets you simultaneously post to Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, and even MySpace.
Image of what the next iPhone could look like via Macrumors
Apple is expected to announce its new iPhone later this year, most likely sometime this fall. Some expect it to be a drastic redesign compared to the iPhone 4/4S, with a larger screen and new unibody design.
Analyst Brian White from Topeka Capital Markets has dropped a note this morning, confirming these reports based upon a recent trip to China and saying that the iPhone 5 will be “the most significant iPhone upgrade” yet. He also expects that with the excitement it will bring, the iPhone 5 will push Apple’s stock to a crazy price $1,001 per-share by year’s end.
Cult of Mac’s delicious new podcast is back with a new episode this week. CultCast episode 7 dives into rumors of Apple’s new TV being called the “iPanel,” along with some commentary of high school iPhone users and whether or not we’d let our kids get an iPhone.
And what about Ashton Kutcher playing Steve Jobs in that upcoming indie film? Bad casting decision? Or does Ashton have the dramatic chops it would take to convey the complexities of El Jobso? The CultCast dives into those topics and much more which a heavy serving of comedy to help satisfy your Apple cravings.
Once you’ve heard our take on things, comeback and leave a comment telling us your opinion and we just might read your thoughts on the next CultCast episode.
No one's ever going to mistake a Galaxy S for this, are they?
Products can be too popular for their own good. Take zipper, for example. Today, it’s used as a generic term for the interlocking steel teeth that keep you from exposing yourself to the public, but in the 1920’s, it was a distinct brand: the Zipper, invented and marketed by B.F. Goodrich, which was such a successful alternative to the boring old button that it lost its capital ‘Z’ in the mind of the public and became a generic term that lost its trademark… and once it lost its trademark, anyone could call their rip-off product a “zipper” as if it was the real thing.
It’s a very real issue that many companies spend a good deal of money on every year. They want their brand to be synonymous with a certain type of product, but they don’t want it to be so synonymous that they lose ownership of the brand. And it’s why, if you like, say, Jell-O, or Xerox, or Kleenex, you shouldn’t refer to similar products from another company by the same name.
Over at The News Virginian, there’s an interesting think piece by AP writer Mae Anderson if the same thing could happen to the iPad. It’s a great read on the history of trademarks becoming generic, but it’s not really very likely to happen to the iPad. Here’s why.
With a $30 XBox accessory, you can add Wi-Fi to your $6,000 camera
If you have already paid $6,000 for a new Nikon D4, you are either rich enough not to care that adding Wi-Fi costs another $900, or your bank account is now so wiped out that you can’t even afford to charge the battery. If you fall into either camp, though, you might still want to try out his great DIY project which adds Wi-Fi to your supercamera for just $30.
After ripping into the new iPad when it finally landed in their hands on March 16th, a sizable number of customers began to notice their tablet experiencing issues with Wi-Fi. Worse, it’s not an isolated problem with a few bad iPads: in fact, there are enough people complaining that they’ve managed to fill up a huge thread on Apple’s official support forums.
So far, Apple’s remained mum on what’s causing the issue. However, a repair expert thinks that the issue with the iPad’s Wi-Fi may be caused by bad power management to the Broadcom BCM4330 chip that handles Wi-Fi on the device. While it’s a hardware issue, though, the expert says Apple could probably fix it with a software update.
Few iPad publications include interactive or immersive ads (source: Kantar Media)
It’s pretty clear that digital distribution is going to play a large role in the future of magazines and newspapers. That doesn’t mean, however, that print editions are going away any time soon. For the foreseeable future, we’re likely to see print/digital hybrids while consumers and publishers test the waters of both digital products and distribution channels.
The road to digital hasn’t been a smooth ride for many publications. Part of the reason is the lack of resources being devoted to creating engaging and immersive digital content that doesn’t feel as if you’re simply reading a PDF of the print edition.
One big area where publisher are still failing is advertising – despite excellent interactive ad systems like Apple iAd, publishers are still stuck in a print mentality when it comes to ads. In fact, according to a new study, publications often simply toss the exact same print-formatted ads into digital editions that run in their print counterparts.
Last week a Foxconn recruiter thought he knew what he was talking about and told a reporter that Apple’s next iPhone is launching in June. However, he probably only knew as much as we do, and was just making an assumption based off Foxconn’s drive to hire 18,000 employees.
Interestingly, another employee inside of Foxconn would like to disagree with his co-worker. The head of human resources at Foxconn’s Taiyuan factory told reporters in an interview that the new iPhone is launching in October.
While we know a new iPhone is coming this year out of Cupertino, we don’t know exactly when that iPhone will launch or with what specs, but what we do know is that Apple is testing prototypes of the new iPhone in its labs. This morning, a new report sheds some information on the new iPhone that Apple is testing, along with a new iPod touch.
I’m a complete neat freak. Add to this my weakness for bags of all kinds and you’ll see immediately why I love these new organizing wallets from ThinkTank. These four wallets are designed for tidying and storing SD cards, flash gels and cameras batteries.
If you hear the phrase “A place for everything, and everything in its place,” and nod in solemn agreement, then read on.
Made right here in the U.S. of A., we partnered with Seattle indie brand Might Tees to bring the computing days of yore back to life on our new In Love With Lisa graphic tee.
Who’s Lisa? Why, she was only one of Apple’s most iconic computing failures. Perhaps it was her stratospheric 10k price tag that was to blame for her abysmal sales record — it obviously wasn’t her boxy good-looks! We loved her though, so resurrected her cutting-edge, dual-floppy technology in a vintage design you’ll be proud to wear over your torso.
Our new tee is hewn from 100% super-soft cotton, ships worldwide, and is available right now over at MightTees.com.
A new jailbreak tweak called Curiosa lets you see incoming Cydia updates in the iOS 5 Notification Center. Instead of having to open the Cydia app and refresh for changes, new updates will be pushed as notifications for you to quickly view and open.
Developed by prominent jailbreak dev Ryan Petrich, Curiosa is available for free in Cydia now. It comes with some nice features to enhance its functionality.
Papermill launched on Android several weeks ago. Developed by Ryan Bateman and designed with the help of Matt Legaspi, the app is a beautiful Instapaper client for Android devices. Papermill received high praise from the community and widespreadmediacoverage when it launched, and the developer has since broken down its success based on sales. The conclusions he draws about Android users in general are particularly interesting.
Bateman says that, “Android users not being willing to pay for an apps whose focus is quality and whose price reflects this.” Is this true only for the average Android user, or should the average iPhone user be considered as well? How can one make the blanket argument that people don’t want to pay for quality apps? I think it comes down to the basic issue of supply and demand.
In the 1984 novel Neuromancer, author William Gibson described a future in which “implants, nerve-splicing, and micro bionics” could turn people into internet-connected cyborgs.
If you like that idea, you’ll be happy to know that Google is working on it.
The company’s “Project Glass” augmented reality glasses is the first step toward Gibson’s cyborg vision. The glasses project images into one eye, enabling real life (what you see with your actual eyes) to acquire menu items, contextual information, turn-by-turn directions and more. You can take a picture by blinking your eye.
If the idea that augmented reality glasses are a first step toward being assimilated into the Borg, you should know that the head of the project in Google’s “Google X” labs, Babak Parviz, has already developed an electronic contact lens that can display data to the wearer’s eye.
The first step is glasses. The second is contact lenses. And the third is internet-connected eye implants.
Google isn’t the only organization taking these steps. Such technologies will soon become generally available. But will they come from Apple, too?
In a nutshell, Kazwell says Apple will wait and see how the market responds to Google’s Project Glass and he implies that Apple will follow Google into the cyborgification of mankind.
I think he’s wrong. I think Apple will never cross that line. Here’s why.
Movies from Universal, like 'Repo Men', are now available to re-download from iCloud.
When Apple announced that it was bringing movies and TV shows purchased in the iTunes Store to iCloud, every major production house was onboard except Universal and Fox. Due to licensing conflicts with HBO, Universal and Fox were not able to offer video content in iCloud initially. HBO later said that it would be loosening its grip on the studios to allow for licensing agreements with Apple.
It now appears that Universal Studios has been able to start offering its movies in the iTunes Store for re-download in iCloud.
Forget trying to wear your polarized glasses while trying to use your iPad in portrait mode.
Do you wear polarized sunglasses? If so, you can go ahead and forget trying to use your iPad in portrait mode while wearing them. You think we’re kidding? No.. when wearing polarized sunglasses the iPad’s screen turns black when using it in portait mode — rendering it useless until you flip it over in landscape. Devastating, we know.
Celebrity physicist Brian Cox is famous in the U.K. for making physics accessible to the public through bestselling books and several popular TV series. Now he brings elements of both to a gorgeous new iPad app: Brian Cox’s Wonders of the Universe ($6.99).
Featuring amazing animations and lush, high-production video, the app will sweep you back in time to witness the Big Bang, and then look ahead to the universe’s end, when the last black dwarfs will fizzle away to entropy.
As Prof. Cox points out: while the universe evolves momentarily from order to chaos, now is a precious window of time when life is briefly possible, for us to be able to contemplate the universe…
