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So long, iOS 8 jailbreak: Apple stops signing iOS 8.1.2

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Even jailbreakers need to unjailbreak sometimes.
So long, iOS 8 jailbreak. Photo: Redmond Pie
Photo: Redmond Pie

Bad news, jailbreakers. Apple has stopped signing iOS 8.1.2, the last jailbreakable version of the iOS 8 operating system. That means that unless you already have iOS 8.1.2 installed, you won’t be able to jailbreak using existing methods until another exploit comes down the pipeline.

You can help speed Sonic 3 onto iOS

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Ironically, everyone's favorite hedgehog speedster isn't landing on iOS as fast as we'd like. Photo: Sega
Ironically, everyone's favorite hedgehog speedster isn't landing on iOS as fast as we'd like. Photo: Sega

Anyone who enjoys old-school games will most likely have experienced the crushing disappointment of finding a favorite title in the App Store — only to discover that whichever company ported the game to iOS took no care whatsoever in doing so.

Fortunately, one game series you could absolutely never throw that accusation at is the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, thanks to the remastering efforts of fans Christian Whitehead and Simon Thomley. For anyone interested in game restoration and porting, their story is kind of inspirational.

Activation Lock has slashed iPhone thefts in major cities

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Ericsson wants to stop Apple selling iPhones in the United States. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Drop in crime rate? There's an app for that. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

As highly-desirable and premium-priced tech goodies, it’s no surprise that iPhones have previously been among the most stolen items we carry around on a regular basis. In fact, police have even correlated spikes in crime rate to the launch of new iPhone models — suggesting that it’s not just upstanding citizens who keep an eye on the blogosphere.

That all changed when Apple added its Activation Lock feature with iOS 7, allowing users to locate, lock and even wipe their iPhones remotely in the event that they are stolen. Based on that, a new report claims that the number of stolen iPhones fell significantly in major cities around the world between September 2013, when Activation Lock was introduced, and one year later.

Take that, iCriminals!

Struggling Samsung wants to build its own Apple-style ecosystem

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post-311775-image-e0f8bdb0d731a94d4ad5d44cd96a2f9d-jpg

Unlike Apple, which is more comfortable (and lucrative) than ever with its business strategy, here in 2015 Samsung is having a bit of an identity crisis. Is it a freedom-fighting Internet of Things company making smart refrigerators and connected TVs? Is it a Xiaomi competitor, turning out cheaper smartphones than ever for the developing Indian market?

Like a deer in headlights, the company seems to be skittishly veering from one idea to the next, without any real understanding of what it needs to do to once again be competitive.

Of course, there is one idea that has worked for Samsung in the past, and with its mobile division falling on hard times, that strategy seems to be one the South Korean tech giant is more than happy to return to: copying Apple.

Flipboard brings its gorgeous magazine app to the web

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Photo: Flipboard
Photo: Flipboard

Flipboard has taken the leap from mobile to desktop. What started as one of the first iPad apps is now accessible through any modern browser via Flipboard.com, a beautiful web interface for consuming online content.

Like the iPad and iPhone app, you can not only read articles from sites you follow, but also create custom “magazines” based on sources you choose.

Stunt driver takes blind dates on ride of their lives

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This stunt driver brought new meaning to speed dating when she took her unspecting dates for a ride in a 2015 Mustang. Photo: Ford
This stunt driver brought new meaning to speed dating when she took her unspecting dates for a ride in a 2015 Mustang. Photo: Ford

Blind dates can be full of surprises, but few ever end with the man crapping his pants – and with cameras rolling.

Such are the scenes in a Ford Motor Company promo video for the 2015 Mustang, in which a hidden-camera captures a gorgeous blonde stunt driver and her unsuspecting dates.

The video, which has racked up more than a quarter-million views since it was posted to YouTube late last week, runs just under three and half minutes. It shows technicians installing tiny cameras in the car’s dash.

12 juicy info nuggets plucked straight from Tim Cook’s brain

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Life is good for Tim Cook in 2015. Photo: Apple
Life is good for Tim Cook in 2015. Photo: Apple

Life at Apple has been phenomenal ever since Tim Cook took over as CEO. AAPL shares are up 120 percent. 750 million iOS devices have been sold. $100 billion was returned to shareholders. And Apple just became the first $700 billion company in history.

To celebrate a successful 2014 campaign, Cook sat down with Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn today to talk about how Apple achieved its unbelievable results, as well as what other tricks the company has up its sleeves.

Here are the 12 biggest revelations from Cook’s Goldman Sachs tech conference appearance:

$700 billion and counting! Apple is world’s biggest company ever

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This just keeps getting higher and higher. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Boom! That’s the sound of AAPL stock hitting yet another all-time high Tuesday, making Apple the first $700 billion company in history.

Microsoft made history in 2000 when it became the first company to close at $600 billion, so this feat must make Tim Cook and the entire Apple team incredibly proud.

Apple to build $850 million solar farm to power spaceship campus

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Photo: Apple
Apple is doubling down on its commitment to solar energy. Photo: Apple

Apple is building a massive new solar farm in California to power the company’s upcoming spaceship campus and other facilities, Apple CEO Tim Cook said Tuesday.

The solar farm will occupy 1,300 acres in Monterey, California. Cook said the move is a testament to Apple’s commitment to environmental responsibility.

Tim Cook: We don’t believe in the law of large numbers

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Photo: Apple.
Tim Cook sees no reason why iPhone sales can't continue to grow. Photo: Apple.

How does Apple defy the law of large numbers as the company posts ever-increasing iPhone sales?

That’s one of the first questions Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked at today’s Goldman Sachs technology conference. While Apple posted a record 74.5 million iPhone sales last quarter, Cook says he sees no reason why that number can’t keep growing.

College students crave iPhones more than sex

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The iPhone 6s is selling like hotcakes.
Nothing tops the iPhone for college students. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Going to college is supposed to be all about going to parties, drinking heavily, hooking up and maybe squeezing in a few classes if you find the time. But when it comes to college students today, it turns out what they really want most is an iPhone.

Researchers at Student Monitor asked 1,200 U.S. undergraduates last fall to choose “what’s in” among students from a list of 77 options. Not only did students rank the iPhone as more popular than coffee, texting, drinking beer and college football, but Apple’s smartphone somehow managed to top the collegiate tradition of “hooking up” to take the No. 1 spot.

The iPad didn’t do too bad in the survey either, topping Instagram, laptops and selfies. Here’s the rundown on what college students ranked as most important:

5 hot Raspberry Pi projects for Mac geeks

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Photo: Lucasbosch/CC Wikimedia
The tiny Raspberry Pi computer can power many cool DIY projects. Photo: Lucasbosch/Wikimedia CC

The credit-card-size Raspberry Pi has taken the tech world by storm. Thousands of geeky kids and adults use the tiny, low-cost computer boards to learn about coding and create fun projects like motion detectors, birdhouses that tweet when birds are present, and mini weather stations.

You, too, can use this sweet little nerdy device to reproduce some of the cool things your Mac can do, without dedicating your entire computer to the project. Let’s take a look at what kinds of things might be interesting to an Apple fan with a new $35 Raspberry Pi 2.

iPhone 6s may feature updated Touch ID sensor for better Apple Pay

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Touch ID
Touch ID is ready for an upgrade. Photo: Apple
Photo: Apple

Touch ID is going to get a big upgrade in the next iPhone, according to a new rumor from reputable Apple analyst Ming Chi-Kuo.

In his latest note to investors, Kuo says Apple plans to upgrade the fingerprint scanning technology in its Touch ID module this year to reduce the number of reading errors and offer a “better and safer Apple Pay user experience.”

Tim Cook to speak at Goldman Sachs tech conference today

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As if Tim Cook doesn't already have enough on his plate!
Tim Cook Photo: Apple
Photo: Apple

Tim Cook doesn’t make many speaking appearances at non-Apple events, but the Apple CEO is in San Francisco today to speak at Goldman Sachs’ technology and Internet conference.

Cook attended the conference in 2013 and 2012, but skipped the event last year. Apple fans can listen to streaming audio from the conference, which starts at 12:30 p.m. Pacific.

Apple would take a bite out of GoPro with this action cam concept

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The iPro action cam concept. Photo: Curved

 

 

It’s no secret that Apple has given some thought to wearable cameras. The company already has a patent that would crush GoPro if it ever decided to make sports cameras, but there’s not enough money in the market for Apple to even bother.

We’ll probably never get to see what Jony Ive’s perfectly designed answer to GoPro would have looked like, but our friends at Curved have been busy dreaming up the perfect action cam that works seamlessly with the iPhone and Apple Watch. Their answer is called the iPro: an action cam that looks so good, you’ll never want to beat it up.

Take a closer look:

Apple Pay projected to crush PayPal at big box stores in 2015

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Apple Pay is going everywhere in 2015. Photo: Apple
Apple Pay is going everywhere in 2015. Photo: Apple

Apple Pay has already become the fastest growing mobile wallet but the only thing holding it back is the limited number of retailers that accept it. A new study has found that PayPal is still leading the mobile payments race with 13% of retailers accepting it more than any other alternative payment type.

Boston Retail Partners surveyed the top 500 retailers in North America and found that only 8% currently accept Apple Pay, but Apple’s mobile wallet is expected to make a big push this year and take the top spot with nearly 40% of big shops in the U.S. accepting Apple Pay by the end of 2015.

Here’s the full breakdown:

Neil Armstrong’s ‘bunch of trash’ is space history treasure

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A bag of forgotten moon mission artifacts was found in a closet in Neil Armstrong's home. Carol Armstrong photo: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
A bag of forgotten moon mission artifacts was found in a closet in Neil Armstrong's home. Carol Armstrong photo: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

Neil Armstrong had just been the first man to walk on the moon but now had to put out the trash.

It was a critical step home. Precise weight had to be calculated for re-entry and to make way for moon rocks, miscellaneous space travel items had to be discarded in the lunar module.

Just before sending the Eagle crashing into the surface of the moon, Mission Control records Armstrong’s voice saying nothing historic, certainly not as memorable as “One Small Step for Man…”

“You know, that – that one’s just a bunch of trash that we want to take back . . . We’ll have to figure something out for it.”

This audio proved to be an important piece of provenance when the wife of the late astronaut discovered a white bag in a home closet.

Apple could sell 320 million iOS devices in 2015

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Photo: Cult of Mac
Photo: Cult of Mac

Last year, despite the constant cries from naysayers that Cupertino had lost its edge, Apple blew past all expectations by shipping over 259.5 million iOS devices.

So how many iOS devices will Apple ship in 2015? According to one reputable industry analyst, a staggering 320 million iOS devices.

Sling TV, the Netflix for cable, opens doors to all subscribers, with new channels coming

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sling on iPhone
Sling television interface. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Sling TV — the Dish-owned streaming service that does for cable what Netflix did for video tentals — has just announced that it is opening its door to the general public. And if the cable stations it currently has on offer don’t entice you to sign up for its $20 per month subscription, well, some more channels are coming down the pipeline soon.