Here at Cult of Mac, we love Apple’s new A4-powered update to their “hobbyist” set-top box, the AppleTV… but all is not rosy for everyone. According to reports coming in from users, the new AppleTV might be prone to a very, very subtle skipping problem that — once seen — becomes impossible to unsee.
Next Monday is November 1st and for us would-be wordsmiths, that date has special import as the first day of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. Over the next thirty days, tens of thousands of would-be novelists will smash out as much prose as they can, trying to finish the first draft of a short, complete novel before the clock strikes midnight on November 30th.
In order to help novelists prepare for the orgy of fiction that will all but consume the lives of Mac-using NaNoWriMo next month, Scrivener — our favorite project planner for writers and novelists — has seen fit to release the public preview of the much anticipated 2.0 update… and it’ll be completely free to use until December 7th.
Remember last week’s report that said that almost one-third of all iPad owners had never downloaded an app?
We bought it — after all, the iPad is a compelling device right out of the box without ever plugging in a credit card company — but it looks like we were being overly credulous. Nielsen Group, who originally posted the numbers, has just released a huge honking update on their previous numbers… this time claiming that only 9% of iPad users have never downloaded an app.
One of the little secrets that has made Apple the most profitable company in tech is their ability to achieve high margins on their gizmos, but the new MacBook Airs might set a record even for Apple: according to analysts who have estimated its bill of materials, the entry-level, 11.6-inch MacBook Air costs only $718 to make.
That means that for every 11.6-inch MacBook Air Apple sells, they make $281, a profit margin of 28.1%. That’s for the 64GB: buy yourself a 128GB MacBook Air and the profit margin jumps to 34%. Buy a 128GB 13.3-inch MacBook Air and that margin nudges forward again, this time to 37%.
Those margins are excellent, even comparatively: Apple, on average, achieves a profit margin of just 20% on the rest of their laptops.
The AppleTV has been jailbroken and we’ve already seen the release of the first AppleTV app courtesy of nitoTV, but how to install it without an AppleTV version of Cydia? Jailbreak maestro MuscleNerd gives us the four-one-one:
1) Jailbreak your AppleTV using PwnageTool
2) SSH into your Apple TV2, the default password is “alpine”
3) Type “passwd” and enter a new password (if you haven’t already)
4) Type: echo “deb https://apt.awkwardtv.org ./” > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/awkwardtv.list
5) Type: apt-get update
6) Type: apt-get install com.nito.nitoTV
7) Type: killall Lowtide
Done and dusted! Enjoy the amazing ability to get weather… on your television! The future is now!
Couch potatoes take note: Peel, a free app that’s a sort of mix between Netflix’s movie suggestions and TV Guide, made its debut last week.
And it’s got a star-studded development team backing it up. Core members of the original iTunes team helped create Peel’s interface, and a team that beat Netfilx’s movie-suggestion algorithm in a competition worked on Peels innards.
Despite the wary uncertainty of several Secret Service agents, Sylvester Cann was able to get President Obama to autograph his iPad at a recent rally at the University of Washington in Seattle. Much to Apple’s chagrin, the autograph was captured through their arch-nemesis Adobe’s Adobe Ideas app.
Obama — cool as a cucumber — seems to have been a sport about it all: he reportedly thought autographing an iPad was pretty awesome.
Photo effects apps are two-a-penny on the App Store now, so if your photography app is going to make a splash it needs to offer something more than just whimsical visual effects and a selection of fake-Polaroid borders.
Pinhole Camera claims to turn your iPhone into a digital pinhole camera. It’s quite fun to use, mocked up like a home-made pinhole cam made of sticky tape and cardboard.
But what sets it apart isn’t the basic photos – it’s the double exposure feature that lets you merge two photos into one.
For the past three years, AT&T’s constabulary of phone-slinging retail monkeys have been rigorously trained in all aspects of the iPhone so as to best pimp Ma Bell’s exclusive handset… but as rumors about the end of that exclusivity have increasingly gained traction, so have AT&T’s efforts to train their employees in other smartphones, says Bloomberg.
Last week, we reported that Apple’s new MacBook Airs were shipping without Adobe Flash preinstalled… a radical departure from the norm for Apple, which has been bundling Flash with OS X (and OS 9 before it) as the default for seemingly ages. Was it a fluke, or is this Apple’s new policy?
Nope, not a fluke, according to Apple, who say that Adobe Flash will not come preinstalled on any of their machines in the future.
iPhoto ’11 is an incredible update to Apple’s casual photo managing/editing suite which makes organizing and tweaking your digital snaps simpler and more streamlined than ever, but only if iPhoto ’11 doesn’t gobble up your existing library as part of the upgrade process… a mishap that is striking an alarming number of upgraders.
During his time as head of Microsoft, Bill Gates was famously anti-Apple, going so far as to issue an emphatic decree banning all Apple gadgets on the software giant’s mega-campus. Since then, however, Gates has been replaced by Steve Ballmer and the prohibition against iPods and iPhones has gradually loosened up… but there’s one place where Gates’ fierce rivalry with the House that Jobs built continues unabated: the palatial mansion of Bill and Melinda Gates.
Apple’s new data center in North Carolina is “fully operational” and prepared to “ramp up production,” according to a weekend report. Additionally, the industry publication appears to confirm last week’s report that the Cupertino, Calif. company may double the current 500,000 square-foot server farm.
The report buttresses a July statement by Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer to reporters. “We expect to complete it by the end of the calendar year, and begin to use it,” the executive said. Since acknowledging the North Carolina site’s existence nearly a year ago, the location has been the source of rumor and speculation.
iSeeU is a new accessory from PLAYMASS for the iPhone 3GS that provides users with the functionality of a front-facing camera in a pretty novel way.
It’s a clip-on accessory with some carefully arranged mirrors that reflects what’s in front of your device in to the camera at the back, kind of creating a front-facing camera. Check out the video below to see how it works.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti8XI3X-eCA
Although the iPhone 3GS is not FaceTime compatible, there are video calling applications in the App Store that work perfectly on the older model, like Fring, Tango Video Calls and Yahoo! Messenger
iSeeU is now available to pre-order for $24.95 and will be launched in “early October.” A release date which I think may have been missed. It’s available in five colors and comes with a carrying case.
Steve Jobs is reported to have confirmed by email that the switch on the side of your iPad will forever be a mute switch from iOS 4.2 onwards, and that users won’t be given the option to change it back to an orientation lock.
When the iPad was first released, the switch on the side of the device was an orientation lock, and many users were very fond of this function. In the most recent iOS firmware, the function of the iPad’s switch has changed to enable users to quickly mute the device, just like they can on the iPhone.
One iPad user, named Robert, sent an email to Jobs himself to ask whether the iPad switch will always be a mute button from iOS 4.2:
“In IOS 4.2 for iPad is the switch on the side going to be the mute and not screen orientation lock from now on?”
Jobs replied with a simple “Yep.” and then Robert asked whether users might be given the option to customize the function of the switch:
“Are you planning to make that a changeable option?”
Jobs provided another simple reply: “Nope.”
So, your iPad switch will always be a mute button from iOS 4.2. As an iPad user myself, I have to say I’m a little disappointed that the switch has changed to a mute button – although it’s only a slight change, I felt the orientation lock was much more useful. Turning the iPad to silent was easy enough already in iOS 3.2.x by just holding down the volume button.
[via 9to5 Mac]
Cult of Mac members and fans of Bloom County, a long lost friend has returned. Straight from the labs of the RetroMacCast and brainchild of RMC co-host John, the Banana Junior 9000 Fully Portable Personal Computer has been reborn! It Computes, Sorts, Prints, Draws, Figures, Doodles, Slices, Dices, Whistles, Whimpers, Dances, Prances… and most important of all… It Turns ON!
Holy Mackerel this thing is fast! 46 tabs in Safari and 21 in Chrome; 18 open applications, including hogs like Safari, Mail and iTunes.
No spinning beachballs!
There’s no slowdown whatsoever. It’s amazing. This thing flies. It’s the $999 11-inch MacBook with only 2GBytes of RAM — the machine people said would be underpowered. But it’s not. Not by a long shot.
It’s the fastest laptop I’ve used in years, and Apple is going to sell boatloads of them. It’s very exciting.
I’ve got to go on a scout trip with my son. Full review on Monday, and more pictures after the jump.
httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ifrXlloH9s
Cult of Mac was asked by CNBC’s Street Signs to contribute our thoughts on the current market debate of whether it’s wiser to invest in Gold or Apple. Even though we don’t masquerade as financial advisors, the debate in the short-term seems fairly straightforward to us, and here are a few of the major points:
Sadly this is kind of true about the new Macbook Air, since even the base model is two, three, or more times higher in price than most Windows-based netbooks. However, if you compare the two platforms I think you’ll still be better off with the Macbook Air.
[via Macenstein]
Docks that can accommodate the iPad are a quickly swelling niche in the home electronics market; iHome’s throws another hat into the ring with their wide-stanced iA100, combining a sleek look and Bluetooth connectivity.
Bluetooth capabilities include streaming music from a BT-equipped iDevice, and turning the unit into an iPhone speakerphone (though Skyping won’t work, as Skype has yet to add BT functionality to their app). Sound from four active speakers is enhanced through the same Bongiovi DPS processing technology found on their flagship iP1, and a free app available through the app store add a slew of features like enhanced alarm controls, and even sleep stats.
The iA100 is available now, and sells for $199.
This is turning out to be a pretty artsy weekend for the iPad. Not only will there be an explosion of iPad and iPhone art at the first ever Mobile ArtCon in Manhattan, but Infinite Dreams has also just launched a free version of their Let’s Create Pottery HD app, which turns the iPad into a virtual pottery wheel and kiln and has to be one of the most stunning creative apps we’ve seen on the device. there’s even a virtual showroom, where finished creations can be displayed.
The full, $5 version of the app will also be on sale at $3 through the weekend, though it’s not immediately clear what the differences are between the two.
Clubbers at a Miami hotspot find out the dreaded answer to whether their names are on the guest list thanks to iPads.
Door staff at LIV at the Fontainbleau Hotel use Apple’s magical tablet to check guest lists, table reservations and organize their email lists.
The MacBook Air, heralded earlier this week for its ultra-thin 0.68-inch profile and lack of any hard disk drive, is putting a knife in the back of drive makers. That’s the word from one company hurrying to move from dinosaur drives to a flash memory future.
“The new announcement of the MacBook Air is really stabbing Seagate and Western Digital in the back,” LacCie CEO Philippe Spruch, told the Wall Street Journal. The French-based Lacie is transforming quickly into a flash-based firm. The MacBook Air, instead of a hard disk drive uses flash for storage and a read-only memory card for installations. Who are the winners and losers in the storage upheaval?
Artists who have traded canvases for touch screens and brushes for the Brushes app will meet up at a Digital Art Conference in New York City this weekend.
The iAMDA (International Association of Mobile Digital Artists) has organized its first ever MobileArtCon taking place at the New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), October 23-24.
Cult of Mac talked with artist and organizer Matthew Watkins — whom we featured when his iPhone art was the first to hang at an Apple reseller — about what to expect from this weekend meeting of digital artists.
Earlier talk of the death of HP’s Slate tablet was incorrect – sort of. While a consumer-oriented tablet using the webOS acquired from Palm may have to wait until 2011, the computer maker is reportedly on the verge of unveiling the HP500, an $800 Windows 7-based tablet designed for the office.
The Slate 500 (the official HP Slate webpage redirects visitors to the company’s inventory of business laptop and tablet pcs) uses a full version of Microsoft’s Windows 7, weighs in at 1.5 pounds and includes an 8.9-inch multitouch screen.
The device also supposedly is powered by a 1.86 GHz Intel Atom chip. Apple’s 64GB iPad uses the in-house 1GHz A4. Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently commented on rival tablets. “Our potential competitors are having a tough time coming close to iPad’s pricing. iPad incorporates everything we’ve learned about building high value products,” he said Monday. The proof will be in the pricing of our competitors’ products, which will offer less for more,” Jobs claimed.
