News - page 2355

Rogue Amoeba Software added to its lineup of innovative audio software titles Monday with the release of Radioshift Touch, software that lets users listen to internet radio anywhere on their iPhone or iPod Touch.

Powered by RadioTime, an internet radio catalog with thousands of stations from around the world in its database, Radioshift allows users to browse by genre, search by keyword and view listings for thousands of specific radio programs as well.

The app leverages iPhone firmware’s GPS capabilities to serve up local stations based on the user’s location and uses a feature called “SmartStream” to point to the most bandwidth-friendly stations, depending on the connection. Users can access Internet radio via, WiFi, EDGE or 3G.

Radioshift Touch is available at the iTunes AppStore for $9.99.

Given the host of free and low cost music programs available on the AppStore, including the ever-popular Pandora, and ClearChannel’s iHeartRadio, it will be interesting to track the success of Radioshift, with its relatively expensive price tag. Paul Kafasis, lead developer at Rogue Amoeba, has a sterling reputation for developing useful, high quality audio software for the Mac, so we invite Cult readers who try Radioshift to let us know what you think.

In a nod to reality, Apple Monday began listing worldwide carriers offering ‘unlocked’ iPhones. Just a year ago, Apple CEO Steve Jobs described the struggle between hackers and Cupertino as a “cat-and-mouse game.”

Now the Apple Website includes “Carrier offers authorized unlocking” on a support page.

Nearly 40 of the 105 countries listed offer unlocked iPhones. However, some handsets are unlocked through just one carrier.

Singer Katy Perry made her fame with pop try-bianism, but her heart is in a long-distance love with a boy. Perry is a Mac user who credits iChat with keeping up the relationship:

“Her current love is Travis McCoy, singer for the indie hip-hop band Gym Class Heroes, whom she met two years ago when they were recording in the same studio complex in New York, although he remained on the East Coast while she went back to L.A.

This summer they were together for 10 weeks during traveling music festival the Warped Tour,but “I [last] saw him three, four weeks ago,” says Katy wistfully. “It’s definitely difficult. I was really lonely for a couple of weeks, but that’s the name of the game. To me, iChat is the most beautiful technology invented, ever!”

Wonder if she iChatted a girl, just to try it, would the experience be as beautiful?

Photo: Perry’s website

Via Page Six

The iPhone nano is back. The vaporware – part handset, part iPod – has re-emerged more than a year after first speculation. The newest iteration comes from China.

The latest rumor is that iDealsChina is producing a case for the unnamed product that supposedly will be unveiled at Macworld in January.

The Chinese company, which MacRumors says has “a very mixed track record” when it comes to leaking news of actual products, notes the case’s dimensions “have the same height as the just release Nano but wider and thicker and with the same iPhone 3G contours.”

First: Try My Nose!! No, really! Try it!

“Just select a nose you like, hold it next to you current nose and surprise your friends!”

Or – now here’s a radical thought – just stick with the nose you were born with! Maybe it suits you just fine! Maybe – oh never mind. Next!

Analyst David Bailey told investors Monday shipments of iPhones, iPods and Macs are lower than expected as the company copes with a tighter economy.

As a result, Bailey also cut his target price for Apple shares to $115 from $125.

Bailey said the apparent lack of any new product category for the upcoming January MacWorld 2009 removes “a potential catalyst” for shares, causing “Apple to try to generate demand in a tough environment.”

Despite the short-term challenges, the analyst told clients he believes Apple will remain ahead of competitors.

Bailey’s downgrade follows last week’s target price cut by Morgan Stanley’s Kathryn Huberty. Huberty cut her target price to $95 from $100, citing the weak economy. Along with trimming Apple stock, the analyst also lowered projections for iPhone sales during calendar 2009 to 14 million units, down from 19 million handsets.

Fans don’t listen to our albums, said Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, because
iTunes favors the single and the shuffle mentality.

In a Q&A with the Chicago Tribune, Corgan said the tepid reception of last year’s comeback album “Zeitgeist,” makes it the last effort the band will produce in album format.

Chicago Trib: So “Zeitgeist” was the last album?

Corgan: “We’re done with that. There is no point. People don’t even listen to it all. They put it on their iPod, they drag over the two singles and skip over the rest,” said Corgan.

“The listening patterns have changed, so why are we killing ourselves to do albums, to create balance and do the arty track to set up the single? It’s done.”

With “Zeitgeist,” the Smashing Pumpkins did try to adapt to new musical habits, releasing a pre-sale version with bonus tracks and covers especially on iTunes — to the outrage of some fans who felt obliged to buy more than one copy of the album to get the title track.

Much like Metallica’s rage against the iPod, this probably won’t win the Smashing Pumpkins any new fans.

Via Mac World UK

Found this pretty cool Mac tree ornament, courtesy of Flickr user Chris Dejabet, who is also responsible for the stocking below, featuring the groovy Mac applique, and it got me thinking that – given the almost unbearable cuteness of Apple products, as well as the legendary inventiveness and creativity of the Legions of the Cult – I haven’t seen a whole lot of Apple-oriented Christmas decorations.

I did poke around a little bit and found some pages at The Apple Collection featuring very handy pdf files you can download to make your very own paper Apple ornaments like Chris’ above.

I’ve included a couple of screen grabs indicating some of the choices available, and if you’re interested in folding more than just wrapping paper this holiday season, click here and here.

Microsoft finally got around to testing Apple’s AppStore waters this weekend with the release of Seadragon, a free project of Micrsoft’s LiveLabs that lets you see giga-pixel images on your iPhone using a nifty zooming algorithm to get super-close on a map or photo, with just a few pinches or taps of your finger.

The app comes pre-loaded with images and lets you view yours or others’ Photosynth images, or content from any RSS feed.

The embed above shows of the experience in a fashion similar to the one you’ll find on the iPhone or iPod Touch, according to a report at TechCrunch.

Via 148Apps

Seems like the big news over the past few days at the AppStore tends mostly to the questionably mature, if not downright asinine.

First, the re-emergence of Pull My Finger, an ingenious application that produces the sound of flatulence, generated over 200 stories in the Apple web-osphere yesterday. After initially rejecting the app as something with no discernible utility, Apple has reportedly sorted out how to handle this particular genre of application, according to Pull My Finger’s developer.

Then there there was the implication of either uncertainty or perhaps some discrimination with respect to apps intended for “mature audiences,” with developers of apps rated 17+ finding they cannot – as of this writing – issue promotional codes that other app developers were recently given to enable easier review and testing. Apple has described the restriction as a “minor glitch” that should be resolved shortly, according to a report at iLounge.

Finally, also on Saturday, the application Poo Price made its debut. Poo Price counts time while you’re doing your business on the toilet at work and tells you how much money you made during that time “working” based on your salary. What price good humor, eh?

The interesting thing about Poo Price, though, is that it may be an example of an app that works in the background, in violation of the SDK’s prohibition on such functionality, according to a piece at Venture Beat.

Amid recent concern that Apple may have given Google preferential treatment in approving the search giant’s voice search application for sale in the AppStore, and discussion over SDK restrictions that appear to be keeping Flash off the iPhone in any meaningful way, concern over how Poo Price keeps its timer going even when the user switches out of it while, say, checking email in the restroom, may not be the most pressing thing on many people’s agenda.

As MG Siegler writes for Venture Beat, Poo Price “is probably just another crude app in the new, racy App Store.”

Eelke Dekker has found a way to transform ordinary everyday clothing into functional, wearable notebook computer sleeves. Wrap a hoodie around your MacBook and hey presto!

Coming soon: trousers for G4 Cubes, dresses for G4 iMacs, and socks for iPods. Oh, that’s already been done hasn’t it?

Eelke explains his thinking in Dutch on his blog post, so I’ve used Google Translate to turn it into English. Apologies, therefore, for the rough-and-ready nature of the translation:

“After the blog post on jerseys that are transformed into the MacBook Sleeve, a friend came along with an old sweater. While he was in the kitchen to toil on a delicious Italian pasta, I stickte jersey quickly to a precise appropriate, unique laptop sleeve.”

(Photo used under Creative Commons license, thanks to eelke dekker.)

Palm, the Treo maker that has seen its profits crater and U.S. marketshare dwindle, is promising to stage a comeback at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show. The company plans to unveil a new operating system and handset, according to BusinessWeek.

Although details are sparse, Palm will “finally unveil an oft-delayed new operating system, as well as the first in a new family of smartphones,” unnamed sources told the magazine.

The tip may refer to Palm’s Linux-based software Nova, which the company had said it would introduce in 2008, then pushed back to sometime next year.

Netbooks outsold iPhones in the third quarter of this year, according to two recent reports. Netbooks, inexpensive laptops with a smaller footprint, sold 5.6 million units versus 4.7 million of Apple’s touchscreen handsets.

The netbook category grew 160 percent in the third quarter compared to 2007, according to DisplaySearch. Experts predict 14 million netbooks will ship by the end of 2008, boosting notebook PCs along the way.

“With the lone exception of Apple, all of the top 10 PC brands have entered the mini-note PC market, John Jacobs, DisplaySearch Director of Notebook Market Research said earlier this week.

This, lovely readers, is the Girl Who Balanced A MacBook Air On Her Head. Her name is Holden and she’s in San Francisco.

Next week, we shall show you The Man Who Wore An iPhone As A Tie (he lives in Edinburgh), and the Parisian Who Used A Pair Of Old G3 Blue-And-Whites As Boots.

(Photo used under Creative Commons license, thanks holden_helena.)

More Apple-inspired handiwork from the same Japanese fan who ripened Apple logos on to the fruit.

Though not the first Apple nail decals (iPress on or glitter glam version, anyone?) these simple white Apple logo and iPod decals win for elegance, hands down.

Hmmm. Wonder if Apple logos that Mac enthusiasts can suntan on skin might be next? Sure, the execution would be more complicated (how long would you have to wear the sticker to brand your flesh?) but the surprise effect a sure winner.

Image courtesy Nobon

The developers at Mokugift, the kind-hearted people behind the iPhone/iPod Touch app A Real Tree, may not be the greatest app developers, but they are good at math.

For every one of the 99¢ apps purchased on Apple’s iTunes AppStore, one of Mokugift’s 12 internationally recognized tree planting partners will plant, yes, a real tree in places fighting deforestation such as Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Burundi, Senegal, Zambia, India, Philippines, and Haiti. These countries are in tropical regions where tree planting is the most beneficial in the fight against global warming.

To be sure, the app is not going to wow the average game-addled, accelerometer-addicted iPhone user. When the app is launched an animated tree grows out of the ground into full bloom. Ta-daa! Tap once and watch a little bird circle around and land. But Mokugift’s Hans Chung understands that Apple has sold more than 13 million iPhones. “If every iPhone owner planted one tree,” he says, “the environmental impact would be equivalent to taking 500,000 cars off the road.”

Chung’s A Real Tree project works with organizations that provide materials and education to local communities to plant trees in an ecologically-beneficial manner. Local communities learn how to plant trees while avoiding toxic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. The trees they plant produce nutritious fruits and crops that they can live off and make a living on.

It seems like an effort worth contributing 99¢ to, doesn’t it? “People spent $8,000 dollars on that frivolous “I Am Rich” app, Chung said, “That inspired us. We knew we needed to develop something meaningful.” If that’s not enough to turn you over, Chung promised more small ‘Easter egg’ surprises will be added to the tree and the little bird with future updates.

Via iPhoneSavior

In the wake of developer Craig Hockenberry’s “Dear Steve” letter complaining about feeling forced to drift in a sea of 99¢ “ringtone apps,” and the inevitable charges of petulant whining that some accused him of in response, developers at Appcubby have published detailed financial records showing, down to the dollar, what goes into keeping food on the table for an iPhone app developer.

Among the things Hockenberry mentioned in his developers’ wish list to Steve were: ways to accurately track who exactly is downloading apps (and which ads/links they clicked on to get to the store), and the ability to offer free demo version of apps that expire after a given time, prompting people to buy the full app. Appcubby’s records would appear to support the view that Hockenberry was not just crying in his beer, and their post supports his call for free demos and more ad-tracking capabilities as two things that would greatly help the situation.

Via Gizmodo

The iPhone and BlackBerry have helped erode the market for inexpensive flip phones as Apple and RIM reshape the handset market, a new report said Thursday.

Touchscreen phones now amount to 10 percent of handsets, nearly triple the 3.6 percent of phones in use each month during 2007, according to ComScore m:metrics.

Phone designs including a fixed QWERTY keyboard, such as the BlackBerry Curve, now comprise 22.6 percent of the market, up sharply from 9.5 percent a year ago, the report said.

AT&T, the exclusive carrier for the iPhone 3G, Thursday began offering online sales of the Apple handset with home activation, a move not available through Cupertino.

The new ordering system is open to new AT&T customers or iPhone owners that would like to add a line, according to Apple Insider. iPhones purchased online can then activate the handset through iTunes.

Before today, iPhone purchasers had to trudge to an AT&T or Apple retail outlet.

Hollywood now classifies iTunes as a competitor to television networks. That’s the seeming reason behind Apple yanking a number of movies from its online video rental and sales, according to a recent report.

When Hollywood licenses movies for TV network airing, they provide a “release window” during which the broadcast is exclusive. In other words, if CBS buys rights to a movie, it can be sure NBC won’t air the same show during that timeframe.

But since first-release DVDs are also a lucrative revenue stream for Hollywood, that “release window” restriction has never been applied to brick-and-mortar retailers, such as Blockbuster or BestBuy.

Gizmodo has the scoop on the launch of Pastebud, a third-party workaround for basic copy/paste on the iPhone using a couple of clever bookmarks and a webapp.

I say basic, because it is dependent on the bookmarks and so will only work with Safari, or with webapps that run within it.

I think the most interesting thing about Gizmodo’s scoop is the comment by Bandit underneath:

“No gadget in 2008 should require someone to create a workaround like this, let alone a gadget from a company as prominent as Apple. Apple should be embarrassed.”

You said it, Bandit. You said it.

Apple unveiled a number of firmware upgrades aimed at addressing several hardware problems experienced by owners of newly-introduced MacBooks, including the MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.

The firmware updates were designed to improve stability of the new laptops introduced in October, Apple explained in a note.

“This update improves the stability of MacBook computers and addresses issues with sleep-wake, USB and device compatibility.”

Geek rapper GOSHone shot a video for his song “Newteknowledge” on an iPhone 3g.
He says it’s the first music vid shot entirely on an iPhone, but whether someone else has done it or not, the song is catchy as hell (though we do wish he’d given “props up to my fellow nerds” on CoM instead of CNET) and the video where he looks like the overtaxed nerd next cubicle over is clever.

He filmed the clip with Cycorder (the app “rocks,” he says but only works on jailbroken phones) and edited with After Effects, because Final Cut had issues with Cycorder resolution and frame rate.

The song is part of GOSHone‘s album “ctrl_alt_ego” which can be downloaded gratis from his website. A three-year labor of love, it includes tracks like “Laptop Muzik,” “Big Brains” and “Data Flow.”

Via podcasting news

Promo App Codes, a  web forum, tradingpost and clearinghouse for iPhone app developers and the people who love them, launched this week and seems to already be generating considerable interest on both sides of the aisle.

For developers, the site is an oppportunity to promote their work and share Apple’s recently authorized promotional codes, a device for getting early-release and review copies of AppStore approved apps quickly into the hands of up to 50 app testers/reviewers. For reviewers/bloggers/app-nuts, the site provides an easy way to learn about new apps and to establish relationships directly with developers while giving them the valuable feedback to optimize and improve their applications.

Amanuel Tewolde, a developer and founder of Promo App Codes, told Cult of Mac, “When I first heard that Apple will give me 50 promo codes for my apps in the store, I didn’t know who to give them out to.” The site was conceived as he began to consider that “user testing is expensive, and these codes provide a cheap alternative, not to mention help with some positive buzz.”

Potential reviewers and developers alike register for a free account on the clean, simply designed site, with developers having the opportunity to post app information and screenshots in blog-fashion. Registered users have the opportunity to post comments on each “post” about an application.

Users/reviewers/bloggers create profiles and add apps to a “wish list,” entries which show up to developers as interest in their apps, and developers then contact users with free promotional codes. The site maintains a rating system for each app and hosts a forum where all interested parties can communicate with one another. At this writing the site has registered 685 accounts in the two days it’s been open for business.

“We still have lots to learn and do but things look very exciting and the timing seems right,” says Tewolde. “It is christmas season, could there be a better time to start a site where people get free apps?”

UPDATE: This post has been edited for clarity as to search results on the US iTunes store.

Informed of racist content in the music of German neo-nazi band Lancer, Apple moved to pull the content from Germany’s iTunes store within two hours, according to a report at MacBlogz.

Landser had been banned by a German federal court in 2005 for brazenly racist songs with titles such as “Polacken Tango” (Polack Tango) and “Zigeunerpack” (Gypsy Vermin), but an Apple spokesperson was mystified as to how the bands tracks made it on to iTunes, saying, “I don’t know how it made it into the store. We do not tolerate this kind of content.”

Computerbild, a German technology publication apparently made the discovery, while a spokesperson for Jugendschutz, a German youth protection agency, was quoted saying, “the right-wing extremist scene has long identified with and used music to exercise their influence on young people.”

The iTunes Terms of Service for the US store clearly states that “you agree to use the Service at your sole risk and that Apple shall have no liability to you for content that may be found to be offensive, indecent, or objectionable.” A quick search on the US iTunes store for music produced by Detroit-based Resistance Records (alleged to be closely associated with the US Skinhead movement) turned up tracks from outfits such as hard core punk label Fat Wreck Chords and compilations from Rot Records and Riot City Records, though nothing by affirmed neo-nazi bands such as Landser, No Remorse, Bound for Glory or Skullhead.