News - page 1871

Siri is arguably, the best digital personal assistant in the world. She can tell you if you need an umbrella. Wake you up when your late. Remind you that you forgot to buy your girlfriend a birthday present, and so many other tasks that sure are nifty. She’s better than having a personal assistant because she doesn’t get all pissed off when you tell her to go get you a coffee, or call in sick so she can go hangout at the beach with her friends.

Did you know Siri can sing too? Yeah, she totally can, and it’s like having J.Lo in your back pocket at all times, without the obtrusive lady lumps. Need proof? Here’s Siri singing a tear jerking robotic rendition of Stairway To Heaven.

We’re huge, unwavering fans of Tapbot’s Tweetbot Twitter client for iPhone and iPad. It just blows the official Twitter client out of the water in every respect. Ahead of the debut of the new iPad on Friday, though, and in accompaniment with their recent update to Camera+, Tapbot has pushed through the 2.1 update of Tweetbot for iPad (iPhone version coming soon), and not only does it support Retina Display resolution and Camera+ 3.0 image capturing and editing… it introduces streaming to the mix!

Apple Configurator is a new free tool that let’s you manage iOS devices in business or education settings. The app can be used simply as an initial deployment tool or as an ongoing management solution. It’s particularly well suited to environments where iPads and other iOS devices will be shared among multiple users since it can be used in “lending library” fashion with users checking out devices because Configurator backs up user data on check-in and applies to a new device on check-out.

This guide covers each part of Configurator  with step-by-step instructions.

Everybody has heard of how crappy Apple supplier Foxconn treats their workers. Long hours. Low pay. Shoddy conditions. Working at a Foxconn factory is in no way glamorous and wonderful, and it looks like even Foxconn is ready to admit as much. In an effort to reshape their image, Foxconn’s Shenzhen factory is looking to hire a Saftey and Security Officer and a Lifestyle Services Manager to make life a little bit more fabulous for their workforce.

Gizmodo’s resident PhotoShop freak and controversy-stirrer extraordinaire Jesus Diaz has posted up a fantastic couple of images putting into perspective just how frickin’ densely packed the new iPad’s 3+ million pixels really are.

In the image above, a new iPad is placed right next to a vintage Macintosh. The idea here is that if the pixels of the vintage Mac and the new iPad were exactly the same size, the iPad would have to be positively Brobdingnagian to accommodate all of them.

And that’s not all.

This shouldn’t take anyone by surprise, but with the new iPad going on sale on Friday at 8 a.m. at Apple Stores around the country, AT&T will also have units that they’ll be selling at their retail outlets on the same day. Don’t count on being able to easily get one, though.

Apple has continually talked about the number of companies that have been testing or deploying iPads to its workers – and if you look around many workplaces today, you’re likely to see at least one or two iPads.

If you’re craving more than anecdotal evidence that the iPad is a serious business tool, however, a new ChangeWave study offers plenty of solid proof. The study shows that 84% of businesses looking to deploy tablets are planning to buy iPads within the next three months. That follows an earlier study that showed the iPad commands 96% of the business tablet market.

iOS devices are big business in China, and not just for Apple. Gangs of scalpers queue up to get their hands on the latest devices on launch day so that they can later be sold on through the grey market for a sizable profit.

Back in October, when the iPhone 4S launched in Hong Kong, police were called to break up the riots that occurred outside of Apple retail stores as scalpers attempted to force their way into the lines ahead of genuine customers. To ensure it doesn’t happen again, Apple has warned scalpers not to queue up for its new iPad on Friday.

Over at 9to5Mac, everyone’s favorite teenage tech space Tintin, Mark Gurman, managed to get his hands on some soon-to-be-posted retail art that confirms the new iPad will go on sale starting at 8 a.m. on Friday. In other words, doors at your local Apple Store will be opening two hours early to accommodate the crush.

Will you be waiting in line for one? What time do you plan on getting there? Let us know in the comments.

Camera+, one of the most popular photography apps for the iPhone, has been updated to version 3 today. In addition to a fancy new icon, the update brings a ton of new features including improved photo sharing, focus and exposure locks, workflows, and more. The release also quashes several bugs.

A rare and interesting Apple prototype surfaced on eBay recently, and although the auction has since ended we thought it notable enough to merit mention. A 1993 prototype called a WALT – Wizzy Active Lifestyle Telephone – combined a telephone, fax, personal address book and more with a HyperCard user interface. It never shipped, but this vaporware breakthrough netted the seller a cool $8000 on eBay.

Early benchmark tests conducted on Apple’s new iPad have confirmed that the third-generation tablet is the first iOS device to get 1GB of RAM, double the amount packed into its predecessor. Its new A5X processor, however, clocks in at the same speed as the A5 chip.

User experience expert Rian van der Merwe posted a heartfelt rant at Smashing Magazine yesterday, begging developers of iPad apps for kids to think a little more carefully about how they put their apps together.

Most of his comments were about UI and interface issues, but the final one was a warning a lot of parents (myself included) will support: don’t try and trick my kids into buying additional content.

Apple is quietly and diligently working behind the scenes to make sure its website looks great on the new hi-res iPads which will begin to drop onto our doormats this weekend. To get ready for the never-seen-before ten-inch retina display, Apple is swapping in higher resolution graphics.

If you’ve got a jailbroken iOS device that you can’t upgrade to iOS 5.1, then you may have installed Apple’s new iPhoto app unofficially. The problem with this is, the app only supports the iOS 5.1 firmware, and you’re likely to run into some compatibility issues that cause iPhoto to crash and freeze every so often.

But thanks to a new tweak called iPhoto501Fix, you can quash those bugs and enjoy a seamless (almost) iPhoto experience.

The new iPad doesn’t go on sale until this Friday, March 16, but some lucky so and sos already have their hands on the device. This video, which is believed to be its first unboxing, was published by Vietnamese site Tinhte.vn.

Apple CEO Tim Cook cashed in on $11.1 million worth of Apple stock today, according to a filing with The Securities and Exchange Commission. 20,178 of Cook’s shares were sold off through a series of 5 transactions at various individual stock prices ranging from $547-$551.

Not a bad pay day.

A new jailbreak tweak has been released, and it lets you access your Home screen from anywhere in iOS. It’s called Springround, and it costs $0.99 in Cydia, the jailbreak version of the App Store.

It doesn’t matter where you are or what you’re doing on your iPhone; you can quickly view your entire Home screen, all your app pages, etc. on top of the app you’re currently in. Sound interesting?

Apple announced over the weekend that it had completely sold out of its pre-order stock for the new iPad, stating that demand for the new tablet is “off the charts.” Now analyst Gene Munster is predicting that Apple will sell over 1 million units during the new iPad launch this Friday, March 16th.

Apple announced that movies are now available for download in iCloud last week at its iPad event. You can now view and re-download video content purchased from the iTunes Store on any authorized device, including the iPhone and iPad.

While nearly all the major Hollywood studios were onboard at the time, Universal and Fox studios hadn’t been able to close a deal with Apple for iCloud availability due to licensing conflicts with HBO. According to a spokesperson for the company, HBO is loosening its restrictions on the studios to let Apple have access to more content, specifically Universal and Fox.

The coolest thing about the Microsoft Kinect is that it makes your feel like a freaking Jedi. Controlling a device by moving your hands or feet is ridiculously awesome when the technology works. Apple has been slow to jump on the motion control bandwagon, but that’s not stopping some clever developers from taking advantage of Apple’s built-in webcams and implementing their own crazy motion control technology. Enter Flutter – the new OS X app that lets you control all of your music without having to ever click a mouse.

The new iPad is here, fellow Apple enthusiasts, in all its retina display glory. And on episode 3 of The CultCast, we get into the nitty-gritty covering all its new features. We’ll also tell you if it’s worth upgrading from the iPad 2.

But we go deeper than that. This was Tim Cook’s first major Apple keynote — do the Apple events still hold the magic they did when Steve Jobs was on stage?

We cover all that and more on this episode of The CultCast — the best 30 minute Apple conversation you’re going to hear all week long. Subscribe to The CultCast now in iTunes to get episode 3 and we’ll send you a fresh new episode every Thursday night!

Now that new iPad delivery times through Apple’s online store have reached two-three weeks, you might be wondering how long you can expect them to stay there. How long will it take for Apple to catch up with new iPad demand and ship iPads to customers within a day of being received?

You have to hand it to the people that file lawsuits these days; they sure can be creative. A New Yorker by the name of Frank M. Fazio has sued Apple because Siri on his iPhone 4S is, “at best, a work-in-progress.” Fazio has accused Apple of false advertising in the Siri TV commercials it airs demonstrating making calls, finding directions, sending texts, etc. with the digital assistant.

The commercials convey a “misleading and deceptive message,” according to Fazio. He thinks Siri sucks in real life.

It’s been rumored for many months that Apple is working on a TV subscription service for delivering streaming video content. The Cupertino company hasn’t been able to make progress for quite some time due to licensing deals and revenue concerns from Hollywood studios.

A recent report reveals that CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said no to providing content to Apple about a year ago. Not only that, but Moonves told Steve Jobs that he didn’t know anything about the TV business. What Moonves really meant was that Apple is planning to disrupt the way the world consumes video content, and that scares CBS to death.