Working in a Chinese factory doesn’t pay that well. When you can’t afford to buy an iPhone, even though you make 5,000 of them a day, the next best thing is to buy a fake iPhone. And when you can’t pay for a fake iPhone, people in China just pay for a cheap service that makes their friends think they have an iPhone by adding a “Sent From My iPhone” signature at the end of their texts.
The DRM restriction that prevents Apple’s iBooks from being opened on other devices can now be removed by the latest version of a free DRM removal tool. Requiem 3.3, a piece of software that is incredibly popular for removing the DRM from music and videos purchased from the iTunes Store, has been updated to crack e-books purchased from the iBookstore.
The fantastic Letters of Note blog has posted an amazing letter that a 30-year old Bill Gates sent to John Sculley and Jean Louis Gassée back in June of 1985.
In the letter, Gates argues that Apple should license their hardware and operating system out to other companies, making Macintosh a “standard.” If that pitch sounds familiar, it should: after being ignored by Apple for six months, Microsoft took the idea and ran with it, bringing Windows to the world.
The rumors are true. Cult of Mac has been working hard on a podcast and it’s finally here for your listening pleasure. Episode one of Cult of Mac’s frosty new podcast, The CultCast, is ready for your listening pleasure. And if you subscribe right now, we’ll throw in our “Welcome to The CultCast!” episode absolutely FREE!
But wait, what is this CultCast, you ask? Why, it’s the best 30 minute conversation about Apple you’re going to hear all week long. Join Leander Kahney, Buster Heine, and me, Erfon Elijah, as we banter about all our favorite Apple news, gossip, products, and Cult of Mac stories. Get caught up on all the best things from the world of Apple in just 30 fun-filled minutes.
Sound good? Well, alright! We’ll be premiering new 30minute episodes every Thursday night. You can subscribe to The CultCast in iTunes and listen to our first full-length episode right now. After you’ve given it a listen we’d love to hear your thoughts. What did you like? What could we do better? Let us hear about it in the comments.
CineSquid Suction Mount from Cinetics on Vimeo.
Remember the Cineskates? They were a Kickstarter sensation, a bendy Gorillapod married to three roller skate wheels and useful for anything from smooth dolly shots to crazy bullet-time-like movies. Now Cinetics, the folks behind the Kickstarter project behind the Cineskates have come up with the Cinesquid, a tripod with suction cups for feet.
The year’s biggest phone expo is about to kick off in Barcelona, Spain. The Mobile World Congress always seems to have an unofficial theme. Last year it was non-Apple tablets and bad 3-D. In 2010 it was Windows Phone 7.
This year? This year looks set to be all about the Phablets. And Cult of Mac is going to be there first-hand to laugh at report on them.
Intego, the company behind the popular VirusBarrier security software for the Mac, has uncovered a new trojan horse called ‘Flashback.G’ that infects Macs running older versions of Java Runtime. The software installs itself on your system without your acknowledgement when you visit a malicious webpage, then it will record usernames and passwords for sites like Google, eBay, PayPal, and more.
Healthcare was one of the first fields to adopt the iPad after it launched two years ago. As with other fields, the initial use of the iPad in healthcare came from doctors and other professionals buying their own iPads and bringing them into their practices or along with them on rounds – a move that predated most of today’s BYOD planning.
A recent study of mobile technology in healthcare clearly shows that the iPad is the number one device used by doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers with significantly greater use than Android or BlackBerry devices or even the iPhone.
Fifty-seven years ago today, Steve Jobs was born in San Francisco, California.
If he hadn’t been, none of us would be here. There’d be no Cult of Mac. It wasn’t just Steve Jobs who was born that day, but the iPod. The iPhone. The iPad. The Mac. Apple itself.
If you’re serious about your iPhoneography (and you should be, with such a great camera always in your pocket), then you might want to take a look at the ridiculously over-achieving iPhone Rangefinder case, from our fine friends at Photojojo. The two-piece polycarbonate case slips over the phone and adds a shutter button, a viewfinder and even interchangeable lenses. It’s pretty neat.
While the majority of mobile devices now ship with micro USB connectors, Apple has remained dedicated to its 30-pin dock connector. But that could be about to change, with sources claiming future iOS devices will employ a “micro dock” that will be significantly than the existing connector.
We were looking forward to EA’s latest Battlefield title for iOS before it hit the App Store. But when it finally arrived, we couldn’t have been more disappointed. Battlefield 3: Aftershock offered only online gameplay, with just one map and a very limited variety of arsenal. Gameplay was frustrating at best, plagued by unbearable lag on top of server and connection errors.
It’s no surprise, then, that EA has now pulled the release from the App Store.
Photo of Zias used with permission
This smiling youngster is Zias Kool, and he’s happy for good reason: as a birthday present, the makers of cult iOS puzzler Edge are going to add his Lego-designed custom level to a future version of the game.
After a German court ruling earlier this month that deemed Apple’s push email services for iCloud (and MobileMe) infringe upon a Motorola patent, the Cupertino company has been forced to disable the service in Germany.
A jailbreak developer who goes by the name of “iPhoneKillerStyle” has thought up a unique Siri mod that replaces the mic icon with Steve Jobs’ silhouette. As you can tell, the mod is pretty detailed. It even allows for multiple Siri mic colors.
It took hard work to create this mod, and you’ll hopefully be seeing it soon in Cydia. If you recognize the image of Steve’s silhouette, it’s probably because you’ve seen it other familiar places before.
If there’s one thing we know for sure about the iPad 3, it’s that the upcoming tablet will have a breathtakingly-awesome screen. After months of building speculation, it’s been repeatedly confirmed that the iPad 3 will follow in the iPhone’s footsteps with a super high-resolution ‘Retina’ display.
In conjunction with MacRumors, iFixit has gone hands-on with an alleged iPad 3 display to reveal the changes and improvements we can expect. Now if only they could get the thing turned on!
While repeated alerts for our text messages are helpful sometimes, other times they’re just downright annoying. If you find that they frustrate you more than they help you, here’s how to turn them off and receive just one alert per message.
Apple wears its love for microblogging social network Twitter on its sleeves. With iOS 5, Twitter became deeply integrated into every iPhone and iPad; with Mountain Lion, Twitter will be a native feature of every Mac.
Given the above, it would be easy to conclude that Apple doesn’t think much of Facebook. However, as Tim Cook made clear to investors at the annual Apple Shareholder’s Meeting today, the truth is more complicated.
A new report from Forrester makes it clear that IT departments and the users that they support are not on the same page when it comes to employees using their own devices in the workplace. In fact, according to Forrester’s survey of both IT staffers and knowledge workers illustrates that IT may be largely out of touch with how many users are bringing their own iPads, iPhones, and other mobile devices and how many devices each employee is bringing to the workplace.
This adds an interesting counterpoint to the study that we profiled early today that indicated that by and large IT departments are beginning to embrace BYOD and other parts of the consumerization of IT trend.
The HunterWanderer is a premium iPad 2 case handcrafted by Pipetto in London. It promises to offer you the ultimate protection for your beloved tablet, while maintaining a lavish look that oozes quality. It’s made from waxed cotton and genuine Italian leather, and not only does it look good, it’s also very practical.
A potentially major coup has happened at today’s Apple Annual Shareholder Meeting: ignoring the request of Cupertino itself, Apple’s shareholders have approved a measure that now requires a majority vote for the approval of new Board Directors.
That’s big. For the first time, any new appointment to Apple’s Board of Directors will require that the shareholders approve in majority any new appointee. That gives the shareholders a lot more power over the company’s future… and could potentially lead to some interesting power struggles down the road.
A small but determined group of protesters from consumer watchdog group SumOfUs gathered at Apple headquarters in Cupertino and headed inside the shareholder’s meeting to ask questions about working conditions at Foxconn.
Apple’s reputation for having the best advertisements out of all technology companies on the planet is well deserved. Not only are their ads phenomenal in quality, but they’ve made a certified crap load of them. The iPhone alone has enjoyed 84 separate TV advertisements over its five year exsistence, and now you can watch them all in one place. Adweek has compiled the entire iPhone advertising campaign into a single page so Apple fans can go through each ad chronologically, starting with the famous “Hello” ad that premiered at the Oscars in 2007, to the most recent one where a kid commands Siri to proclaim him a Rock God.
With so many ads, it’s hard to declare a favorite, but here’s a couple that we’re pretty fond of:
Following the exclusive video tour of Foxconn by ABC Nightline anchor Bill Weir, the involved companies have responded with some minor clarifications and corrections. Apple, Foxconn and The Fair Labor Association (FLA) have all given statements to ABC News that clarify some specific aspects of Nightline’s report.
T-Mobile has announced its earnings for the 2011 holiday quarter, and the GSM carrier lost over 800,000 subscribers. Being the only major U.S. carrier left not carrying the iPhone, T-Mobile saw a 3.3% decrease in revenue to $20.6 billion.
Although the network’s growth has been on the decline for awhile, the fourth quarter of 2011 resulted in an exponentially greater loss following the launch of the iPhone 4S.