News - page 1878

Although bloggers and analysts refer to Apple’s rumored upcoming HDTV as the iTV just out of simplicity, there’s no actual indication that Apple would call it that. None. No one knows for sure if Apple’s even working on an HDTV, let alone what they’re going to call it.

The only evidence that Apple might call an HDTV the iTV is US Patent Patent No. 2011/0154394 A1, which has a solitary image indicating that Apple might, at least, be using the name iTV internally. But that’s not stopping the usual cadre of doofuses from trying to eke some payouts (or, at least, some free publicity) out of the whole thing. In this case, it’s American-based iTV Entertainment, who are threatening to crash tomorrow’s iPad 3 event to prevent Apple from releasing an HDTV with the same name.

The patent saga continues with U.S. Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner in Chicago ruling that Motorola and Google must provide Apple with information regarding Android development as well as information about the impending merger. It’s unclear exactly what specific “information” must be provided and while everyone goes ahead and assumes it’s some sort of top secret documentation, I’m betting it’s nothing of the sort and Apple won’t be gaining any trade secrets out of this. It’s all ridiculous and will only end as all of these patent suits have ended, with nothing more than a software update.

I picked up my first iPhone around three months after the device launched way back in 2007, and I’ve been an iPhone user ever since. I’ve dabbled with Android devices throughout the years, and I even tried webOS on the HP Pre, but I didn’t like either operating system as much as I like iOS on the iPhone.

When Microsoft first introduced Windows Phone, I was instantly attracted to it. I liked the look of the user interface, I liked the way the system worked, and I actually liked the fact that Microsoft was in control of the Windows Phone Marketplace. (One of the things that I dislike most about Android is that the Android Market has no approval process.) I’m not a fan of the Windows desktop operating system, and I’ve stayed as far away from it as possible after purchasing my first Mac. But I felt compelled to try Windows Phone.

So I did. I swapped my iPhone for a HTC TITAN running Windows Phone Mango for one month. Here’s how I got on.

Valletta is yet another Markdown editor for the Mac, but one with a crucial difference. Instead of using a separate window to preview your document, it converts only the current line you’re editing, leaving the rest as clean and beautiful preview. It’s a clever idea, but we’ll have to see how well it works in practice.

Apple officials have reportedly confirmed that the company will not be taking its pop-up retail store to this year’s South by Southwest Interactive Festival, which kicks off on Friday, March 9. The decision suggests Apple’s iPad 3 will not be ready for shipping next week.

Cult of Mac’s reviews editor Charlie Sorrel and I have a bet going on whether or not the iPad 3 will have LTE.

I figure Apple’s got to see the impact of LTE on their iOS devices sometime, and the iPad is the perfect launch platform for it: they can sell the functionality as optional and at a premium, as they do 3G, making sure a minimum number of people get burned by a lack of LTE deployment in their area (and falling back on HSPA+ when LTE isn’t around)…. all the while the iPad 3’s biggery battery mitigates 4G power management issues.

Charlie thinks that argument’s stupid, and LTE’s far too immature to deploy. At stake is a solid buck, or half Charlie’s monthly salary, so tensions are high as the iPad 3 announcement lurches closer and closer on the calendar.

The latest report suggest that buck could very well be mine.

Take apart one of Apple’s latest iMacs and inside you’ll find plenty of space for mounting an additional hard drive. Of course, it’s useless if you don’t have the tools for the job, but that’s where iFixit comes in. The teardown specialists have released a new kit that provides you with everything you need for installing an additional hard drive in your new iMac.

If you go to Verizon Wireless‘s front page right now, they are hyping the imminent launch of something, which we can only assume is iPad 3 related.

But what is it? An iPad 3 with LTE is obviously a big contender, but I wonder if it could be something less splashy but just as important overall, like shared data plans.

What’s your guess? Let us know in the comments!

If you want to know what we really think the next iPad is going to be like, you need to give episode 2 of The CultCast a listen. The Cultcast is the new Cult of Mac podcast and also happens to be the best 30 minute conversation you’ll hear about Apple all week long.

You likey? Subscribe to The CultCast right now in iTunes and hear us apply our keen senses of reason and logic to all the iPad 3 rumors you’re still not tired of hearing.

One of the big things missing from Lightroom — Adobe’s excellent photo processing app — was printing. Not boring old printing where you have a big, expensive box in the corner of your office spit out endless sheets of paper until one of them is right. No, we mean remote printing, where you choose some images, hit a button and, a short while later, a gorgeous book appears on your doorstep.

Apple’s iPhoto and Aperture have had this for a while. Now, thanks to Blurb, the brand-new Lightroom 4 has it too.

Android and iOS users will now be able to quickly access the places they have searched for on Google thanks to Google’s new “Recent” icon on their mobile search page. Any user who has Web History enabled and is logged into Google when searching for a place will have that search saved and accessible via the “Recent” icon. Searches will be saved for approximately 24-hours and will give users the convenience of starting searches from their desktop and later pulling up that information while mobile.

Nerds who use Omni Group’s kick-ass task manager Omnifocus have a little bit of good news today. No, you still can’t export due tasks to a Google calendar shared with coworkers. You can, however, rely on the new non-beta status of the Omni Sync Server, which gets its official launch today. That’s not all: Sync is coming to all Omni’s apps.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Futulele. It’s a crazy electric ukelele made of iPads and stuff.

A little over a week after pulling Battlefield 3: Aftershock from the App Store for connection issues and a truly disappointing gameplay experience, EA has pulled The Simpsons: Tapped Out, for much the same reasons.

Stock of the Apple TV has been quickly dwindling across Apple retail stores in the U.S. in recent months, fueling speculation that the device will soon be replaced by a new model with the “J33” codename that recently popped up in the company’s iOS 5.1 beta software.

One report claims that 98% of Apple retail stores in the U.S. now have no Apple TV stock at all.

Mass Effect 3 lands on consoles in the U.S. today, but if you prefer to do your gaming on an iOS device, then you should definitely dedicate your evening to Mass Effect Infiltrator. From the makers of Dead Space for iOS, this title is an all-new and original Mass Effect storyline made exclusively for mobile devices, and it promises to “boost your Galactic Readiness Rating within Mass Effect 3.”

Were you awakened this morning by the sounds of enthusiastic golf claps? It was photographers everywhere applauding Adobe’s release of Lightroom 4 for only $149 — half the price of Lightroom 3. Upgrading will run you less at $79, but price is only part of what’s new and noteworthy.

What if Apple launches the iPad 3 tomorrow and it doesn’t ship for another week and a half? The company could lose almost $1bn in sales. Here’s how:

Is it wishful thinking on our part or subtle brilliance on Apple’s part? We won’t know until March 7th.

As I’ve argued before, there’s a good chance the third-gen iPad will be called the “iPad HD.” The rumored tablet is expected to feature a pixel-packed Retina display as its flagship feature, and the “HD” suffix could help differentiate it as a newer, higher-quality device.

Two separate reports have been published today stating that Apple will indeed call Wednesday’s tablet the iPad HD.

The iPad 3 is going to have an amazingly sharp screen. Like the iPhone 4S, users won’t be able to see the individual pixels of the iPad 3’s retina display because all 3,145,728 pixels will be densely packed together at 264 pixels-per-inch.

Ok, that’s cool, but what does that actually mean? Well, it if you wanted to get the same amount of pixels into the iPad 2 using its current technology you’d have to use a 19inch screen. The iPad 3 packs more pixels total than a 42inch LCD TV.

Here’s a couple other visual comparisons:

I bet you thought you were pretty cool showing off your X-ray app and farting cat. Well, it’s time to get schooled by some professionals who are going to show you just how amazing your phone could be. Watch as car-hacker/engineer Dr. James Brighton recreates the popular mobile racing game Reckless Racing 2 using two MGF sports cars and an Xperia Play and Xperia S. This was all done in conjunction with Xperia Studio, a project created by Sony which invites people across the globe to test the limits of mobile technology. It never ceases to amaze me what some individuals can accomplish and it’s projects like these that get me excited about the future.

Apple has just issued a supplemental update for OS X 10.7.3 that resolves an issue with Time Machine backups malfunctioning. For some users, restoring from a backup could result in errors, so this update is recommended for all machines on Lion that use Time Machine. You can grab the update in Software Update on your Mac or through this direct link. The file weighs in at 24.55 MB.

Running Cult of Mac, one of the most addictive aspects of managing the site on a daily basis is watching our real-time analysis metrics spit out numbers at us. It’s a fun, gamey way to measure how we’re doing over the course of the day — the site owner’s equivalent of watching XP bubble out of his level 13 warrior’s head as he wades into a crowd of orcs in World of Warcraft.

If I were an app developer, it seems like it would be pretty great to have the equivalent of real-time analytics for my app: a way to see at any given moment how many people were playing with my app, and what they were doing with it. And now TestFlibght, the popular beta distro service for iPhone and iPad apps, is here with a new service that does just that.

Apple is putting a squeeze on the air freight industry with a massive order of iPad 3 shipments, according to multiple reports today. As Wednesday’s announcement draws near, Apple has singlehandedly bought the majority of air cargo space coming out of China at premium rates. Other companies are reportedly scrambling to buy what little space Apple hasn’t already claimed.