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Picture this: You’re at the park, playing with your dog, and an overwhelming hunger cripples you. God you need some tacos, but the nearest joint is 3 miles away, and they don’t like dogs. Don’t worry bro, TacoCopter is here to rescue you from your perils. Well it might be. I have no idea if this thing is real or not, but everything inside of me wants it to be because it combines three of my favorite things: robots, iPhone apps, and tacos. TacoCopter is a website that claims to a be a startup in San Francisco that will use magical flying robots to deliver tacos to your location.

It’s no secret that Apple’s stock has been flying higher than an eagle hopped up on Charlie Sheen’s cocaine stash. I’m no stock expert, but it doesn’t look like AAPL’s upward trend is going to stop any month soon, and it’s going to make investors a boat load of more money. Yesterday, I found out my friend had bought 94 shares of Apple stock back in 2004 for $21 a share. He’s held onto the shares this entire time too. Despite being jealous as hell at his good fortune, I’m also cheering on the stock to hit $1000 so he can cash in a big pay day and treat me to a fine dinner.

The latest Joy of Tech comic gets my jealous angst perfectly. Here’s the rest of it:

Earlier this week, we highlighted the growing need for companies to develop more comprehensive approaches to iPhones, iPads, and other mobile devices than simply purchasing and implementing a mobile device management console. The device-only approach isn’t always a solution in itself and there’s a growing trend of focusing on managing the information and apps on an iOS device instead of (or in addition to) the device itself.

As this multi-tiered model becomes more common, businesses are typically looking at multiple solutions, which is prompting companies in this space to develop strategic partnerships or consider acquisitions as a way of offer businesses a more integrated approach. Two instances of this were the announcement of Good and Box partnering for secure data and enterprise cloud storage and Symantec’s acquisition of Nukona and Odyssey.

Another partnership was announced yesterday between MDM vendor MobileIron and enterprise wireless firm iPass.

Apple’s main supplier pal Foxconn is massive. With multiple mega-factories that can include up to 400,000 workers living on a cramped “campus,” it’s no surprise that Foxconn has quickly become one of the biggest companies in the world. They employ more people than Apple. Not only that, but they’re actually the 10th largest employer in the world, which is freaking enormous when you consider that the US Department of Defense is the world’s largest employer with 3.2 million employees. Foxconn, on the other hand, is just a few notches below them with 1.2million employees. Amazing!

Apple stock just keeps going up, up, up… except when some computer goes bananas, starts screaming “SELL SELL SELL” and all of Wall Street panics. Which is pretty much what happened earlier today, when Apple stock lost 9% of its value in just a blink of an eye.

So you just bought yourself a new Android tablet, and you wish you’d gone for the iPad. Well, that’s too bad. But you’ll be pleased to hear that you can still get your hands on the iPad’s home screen, thanks to Espier Launcher HD.

Way back in September, we told you about a “forthcoming” mod by U.K. based iPatch that would turn the Apple logo on the back of your iPhone into a glowing cutout illuminated by the back of the display, just like on a MacBook. iPatch promised the mod would cost around $160 and be available in about a month.

Well, six months later, and we still don’t have glowing iPhones, but the guys at iPatch are still apparently tinkering with their perpetually imminent mod, and have now shown off how it will allow them to make a miniature torch out of the headphone jack. The iPatch guys talk about how you could then use transparent earbuds to make glow-in-the-dark headphones, but I think they’re missing the true potential here. Can anyone say “laser pointer”?

City officials in Austin, Texas, have agreed to pay Apple $8.6 million in incentives over the next ten years after the Cupertino company revealed its plans to invest $304 million in a new campus. Additionally, it will also receive $21 million from the Texas Enterprise Fund, and possibly a further $6 million from Travis County Commissioners.

In the five years since the iPhone Photography Awards (IPPA) launched, the iPhone camera has gone from disappointing to out-snapping Nikon as the most popular camera on Flickr.

As the March 31 deadline for this year’s award approaches, IPPA founder Kenan Aktulun talks to Cult of Mac about his favorite pics, the distinction between good and great iPhone photos and why apps may not help you create them.

Yesterday’s news that RIM is looking to hire iOS developers with the intention of creating iOS apps unleashed a lot of speculation about what the BlackBerry manufacturer might be planning to release for iPhones and iPads. After initially being tight-lipped and refusing to comment on the job posting, RIM’s PR team revealed that its iOS app development plans center around its BlackBerry Fusion product.

BlackBerry Fusion is RIM’s new mobile device device management solution. The product, which RIM launched earlier this year along with the first major update to its PlayBook tablet’s OS, can manage BlackBerry and PlayBook devices. RIM plans to and support for managing iOS and Android devices as well.

RIM’s statement was pretty vague beyond confirming that it’s new management solution will be the focus of this position, leaving room for speculation as to what additional features an on-device app will enable under RIM’s new management console.

https://youtu.be/p8RHQC0eS_k

When we saw Nokia’s 808 PureView at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, we were grudgingly — but decidedly — impressed. Nokia’s 41MP+ camera phone seemed like a joke at first blush, but using satellite imaging technology and pixel oversampling, Nokia has managed to get SLR-quality shots out of a cameraphone. It simply blows the iPhone 4S’s camera out of the water.

But is the 808 PureView just a great camera strapped to a mediocre phone? Not entirely. Sure, as an actual device, the iPhone 4S is leaps and bounds above the Symbian (!) based 808 PureView, but if you want a great multimedia recording device in your pocket that’s also a phone, the 808 PureView comes out ahead.

Apple’s decision to make Best Buy an official partner for the iPhone is certainly paying off. With 1,100 outlets across the U.S. and an online store, the retailer is now selling almost as many iPhones as Apple itself, according to a survey of customers who purchased the device between December 2011 and February 2012.

Apple and Samsung have battled in court over the design of a number of Samsung’s Galaxy products, which Apple believes were “slavishly” copied from the iPhone and iPad. However, the Korean company’s chief of mobile design maintains that the Galaxy is “original from the beginning,” and believes that one day, he will match Jony Ive by designing a truly iconic product.

Apple has finally updated its iTunes Movie Trailers app for the new iPad’s Retina display. I say ‘finally’ because most of Apple’s own iOS apps were updated with Retina graphics on March 7th, but the Trailers app was left out.

You can download the update for Trailers in the App Store now, and it looks fantastic.

Unlike the Netflix app, Apple’s Trailers will let you stream video in stunning on HD. If you haven’t been using Trailers on your iPad and iPad, download it now and discover what you’ve been missing. Not only can you view trailers for upcoming movies, but there’s a handy calendar view for release dates, charts, favorite starring, and ticket/showing info. A great app just got even better.

Cult of Mac is proud to announce our official partnership with Craig Fox and the rest of the team at WWJC, the first jailbreak convention to hit the United States. As we told you before, JailbreakCon, or the World Wide Jailbreak Convention, will be taking place on September 29th in beautiful San Francisco, California.

Apple’s iOS Safari browser has been the source of many vulnerabilities in the past, and a new discovery reveals a scary bug in the latest version of iOS. When browsing the web on iOS 5.1, there’s the potential that you could run into some address bar spoofing.

What does that mean exactly? Basically, a site URL could be displayed in the address bar that doesn’t actually match the webpage you’re visiting.

With all the rumors surrounding Apple’s intense negotiations to acquire licensing agreements with Hollywood studios for its upcoming television, it can be easy to forget about another aspect of the equation that needs to be reinvented: the remote. When Apple does unveil its long-awaited ‘iTV’ to the dismay of cable providers, you can bet that it won’t come with a clunky clicker like every other TV on the market. If there’s anything that needs to be changed about the industry, it’s the tool we use to communicate with our TV sets.

How would Apple do its own remote? Some have speculated that the iTV will be completely controlled by Siri, but there’s more to the puzzle than just voice control. In fact, you probably already use the future iTV’s remote every day.

RIM has making some interesting choices regarding its future over the past year. The company launched its PlayBook tablet with what was really a beta release of the OS. It expanded its device management platform to include support for managing iOS and Android devices (though many saw that move as too little openness too late in the game). And it introduced support for Android apps in last month’s PlayBook OS update.

In another move that will leave observes scratching their heads, RIM is looking to hire iOS developers. Unlike RIM’s recruitment of Android developers, this doesn’t appear to be in any way aimed at porting existing apps to the PlayBook. The job posting, which lists RIM’s Bellevue, WA location, is for an internal Senior iOS developer that would be creating enterprise-focused iOS apps for the iPhone and iPad.

The app privacy scandal caused by Path’s iPhone app is still leaving its mark, as members of the U.S. Congress have sent out letters to 33 prominent App Store developers to better understand the issue. “We want to better understand the information collection and use policies and practices of apps for Apple’s mobile devices with a social element.”

Apps like the official Facebook and Twitter clients are among the list. Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman and Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee Ranking Member G. K. Butterfield have requested that the developers behind such apps reveal how Apple imposes its privacy standards and how the standards are implemented.

I used a rotary phone once at my grandma’s house back when I was like 6 years old. It’s the only childhood telephone memory I can recall, but most kids my age have never had the pleasure of seeing the dial slowly rotate back into position with each successive twirling of a number. The iRetroPhone is the closest thing to a rotary phone you’ll find today that also utilizes the best mobile phone in the world. Most people will either cringe or laugh when they see it, but we’re pretty sure hipsters across the globe are gonna love this thing.

One of my favorite games of all time is the sprawling Advanced Dungeons & Dragons based RPG, Baldur’s Gate II. Featuring over 200+ hours of content, the game sees your character raised from a hero to a god as he takes on vampires, Beholders, dragons and drow. It’s the closest thing to a real nerds-and-basement tabletop RPG session you’ll ever have on a computer, and in the ten years since it has been released, nothing else has come close to its scope or its writing, and since all of the game’s levels were hand-painted, it still even looks pretty good.

Now Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II are coming to the iPad. Excuse me while I tear off my clothes, smear myself in vasoline and go absolutel bananas.

Sure, iCloud’s convenient, but how safe is your data? No need to be alarmed: it’s actually about as well secured as it can possibly be, as long as you’re not an idiot.

Back in October, we highlighted one of the new features in iOS 5 that allows you to hide previous App Store purchases from your ‘Purchased’ list. It’s great for removing all those apps and games that you may be ashamed of, such as Hello Kitty Parachute Paradise. But what happens if you want to reveal those purchases again?

Well, thankfully it’s easy to unhide them.

Apple uses digital certificates and code signing in various ways to help keep Macs secure. One common example is that apps sold through the Mac App Store are digitally signed, which allows an individual Mac to know that it’s getting the genuine article when a user launches the App Store app. It also allows a Mac to ensure that an application hasn’t been tampered with by a malicious user or a piece of malware each time that app is launched (Mountain Lion’s Gatekeeper feature will be based on the same technology).

The same process is used with Apple’s Software Update servers. Each update from Apple is digitally signed using a certificate that let’s each Mac know that they’re getting genuine updates from Apple.

Digital certificates are designed to expire periodically and tomorrow, March 23, 2012, the certificate associated with Apple’s Software Update functionality will be expiring. Apple already has a new certificate ready that won’t expire for seven more years (2019). The transition to the certificate will be transparent for almost all Mac users, but it may create problems with some OS X Server installations.

It might not be an issue for you, but some users who have purchased new iPads have found that the magnets of their existing cases won’t turn the display on and off. This doesn’t just go for third-parties, either: even some old Smart Covers won’t turn the screen off.

What the heck’s going on? As it turns out, there’s a small change in the way the new iPad that only applies to magnetic cases: polarity now counts.