News - page 2071

For the first time pretty much ever, sales of Microsoft’s Windows OS are about to shrink… and the iPad is to blame.

Say hello to Hound, a new free app from the people at SoundHound. What’s it for? It’s a voice search app for music and musicians. But it aspires to greater things.

The guys over at Alphonso Labs have put a lot of hard work into their iPad app Pulse. Despite the plethora of reader apps out there, Pulse really stands out with its sleek interface that allows users to read vast amounts of content without feeling overwhelmed by the myriad of sources.

As fans of the app, we’re stoked that the Pulse team has decided to include Cult of Mac under their main “Featured” section. If you’re looking for another way to get your Apple and Cult of Mac fix on your iPad or iPhone, then Pulse is definitely an app that you need to check out. And make sure you add our feed while you’re at it.

When Apple debuts iOS 5 at June’s WWDC, it will indeed feature Nuance voice recognition tech… but counter-intuitively, it won’t be baked into iOS’s existing Voice Control feature. If that disappoints you, though, we hope this will be a consolation: iOS 5 will radically re-imagine iOS’s sketchy notifications system, as well as add widgets to the mix.

Yesterday, we reported that Apple had taken the unusual step of both suing and filing-to-dismiss its own lawsuit against the Fei Lam, the teenager who sold Steve Wozniak along with hundreds of others their own white iPhone 4 conversion kits.

That was weird enough. Even weirder? This is the first Fei Lam himself has heard about the case being settled.

Apple’s one-year standard warranty is a pretty good deal for U.S. consumers, but for their European counterparts the glass is half empty.

The standard warranty in the E.U. for consumer goods is two years and that’s what is getting the Cupertino company into trouble with AppleCare, the paid extended warranty program.

Cult of Mac talked to Carlo Piana, a lawyer who worked on the EU anti-trust case against Microsoft, about why Italian regulators are after Apple now. 

Remember the gnashing of teeth from the television industry when the DVR was first introduced – it would kill TV ads. Well, the real threat to TV advertising is your iPhone.

The iPhone and other smartphones account for 60 percent of the distractions from TV ads, according to a behavioral survey. The study participants reported turning away from the TV – and the advertising – whenever they received a text or a call.

With the DVR, even if you hit the ‘fast forward’ button, the advertising message registers with you.

How will Hollywood react to the findings? Will we see campaigns similar to that against distracted driving? Perhaps the industry will create an iPhone app that disables your phone when ads appear?

U.S. record labels are dragging their feet in negotiations to bring music streaming service Spotify to American shores, a move reportedly aimed at give Apple a first crack at a similar subscription plan.

You know the drill. Every year, Apple gives students a special incentive to buy a new Mac in the form of a cheap iPod.

This year, though, the deal might be a lot spicier: students might get a couple bills off a new iPad instead of an entry-level iPod Touch. And Cupertino might just be so excited about this that Back to School will prominently be mentioned at next week’s WWDC.

RIM never did shake its button-down image in attempts to expand into the consumer market dominated by Apple. Realizing its failure, the handset maker is ready to surrender to Apple in the consumer ring, and focus on its business roots… an arena which iPhone is also increasingly dominating.

Remember yesterday’s sketchy report that Apple was looking to get Samsung to supply an AMOLED display for the iPad 3? So that’s not going to be happening, and it’s all because of the same problems that have plagued the tech from the start: the difficulty of ramping up large scale production on AMOLED displays.

That ugly patent troll who has recently been causing a disturbance for indie iOS developers has now turned its attentions to those building apps for Android, right after Apple slapped it on the wrist and sent it packing. Lodsys has photocopied another batch of its intimidating letters and sent them out to a number of Android developers… but will it earn any pocket money this time?

Prepare to get buckets of blood splattered all over your new white iPhone as you exit the Apple Store next week. A group that feels that Apple tries to weasel its way out of too many taxes will be protesting Apple’s retail locations around the country.

Good things come to those who wait. While Google and Amazon rushed to offer simple cloud storage services, Apple apparently was working on something bigger. Much bigger. Get ready for iCloud, a full-featured service streaming your iTunes collection to your iPhone, iPad – eventually even your car.

Speculation that Apple is to introduce ARM processors to the next revision of its MacBook Airs continues, as one source claims the company is internally testing the ultraportable notebooks with its A5 processor… but will we really see an A5 powered MacBook Air? I don’t think so.

Counter to the perception that Android is closing the gap with Apple, a new report shows the iPhone maker’s App Store is miles ahead when it comes to making money for developers.

To celebrate Memorial Day, Electronic Arts and Gameloft have reduced over 30 of their biggest iOS titles. For as little as $0.99, iOS gamers can enjoy one of the most impressive FPS titles in Battlefield Bad Company 2, exhilarating racing action in Need for Speed, and the the biggest soccer franchise available in FIFA 11. Here’s the full list of games on sale:

From the “Not Sure If This Is A Good Idea” Department, automaker Porsche has developed the Porsche G-Force iPhone app as a free download for driving enthusiasts and teenagers of all ages.

For those of you who use Google’s Chrome web browser on your Mac or PC, a new app called iChromy aims to offer an identical browsing experience on your iPad, with a polished user interface and some rather nice features.

While there’s no question that Mac OS X Lion will be one of the main talking points at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June, we weren’t quite expecting it to launch during the event. However, one report believes Apple is currently prepping Lion for a WWDC release.

If you’ve ever had your iPhone stolen, you can understand the urge to become an angel of crippling, throat-crushing, eye-gouging vengeance to the no-good perp who stole your precious.

Here’s a cautionary tale reminding you to resist that temptation: that guy you you’re beating down in a parking lot for swiping your iPhone might be as innocent of the crime as a babe on Christmas.

Business mag Fast Company had funnyman Conan O’Brien pose as eight of history’s greatest innovators for its latest issue on the 100 most creative people in business.

For the cover, Conan dressed as Ben Franklin, Albert Einstein, Frida Kahlo, Steve Jobs, Madonna, Moses, Socrates and Teddy Roosevelt. Weirdly, Jobs doesn’t make Fast Company‘s 2011 list, but his software lieutenant Scott Forstall does.

Here’s a bigger version of the cover:

Never one to shy away for “Me-Too”-isms, Amazon has just launched their own analogue to the popular Mac App Store.

As rumored, Google just announced their new service, Google Wallet… and unless Apple has some surprises up its sleeves when it comes to NFC, it looks likely that the search giant will have a year’s head start on Cupertino when it comes to the lucrative and burgeoning market of mobile payments.

It seems Apple’s legal team managed to take some time out of suing Samsung to file a lawsuit against a New York City teenager who made $130,000 selling white iPhone 4 conversion kits before the device was launched.