The park: a place to jog, soak up the sun, and… charge your iPhone? From next week visitors at select parks in the Boston area will be able to charge their mobile devices at special solar-powered benches, dubbed “Soofas.”
“Soofa is the first step into smart urban furniture,” Changing Environments CEO and Soofa co-inventor Sandra Richter says in a statement. “The possibilities to update the city for the mobile generation are endless and long overdue.”
I’m a digital pack rat. I’ve got an iPhone, an iPad mini, a Barnes & Noble nook eReader, a space pen, several USB flash drives, and various earbuds along with a few charging and adapter cables.
I usually just jam all these things into my backpack as I head out the door, hoping they don’t get lost or tangled in the process. They get lost in my bag of choice, and I spend a fair bit of time searching around for stuff I need in any given moment when out and about.
Honestly, though, it hasn’t been much of an issue. I’ve been ok with taking the extra effort to find my headphones, say, and unwrap them from the unholy tangle they’ve become in my bag, for the simple fact that I’m not super organized.
This new leather folio case, however, has me re-thinking all that. What if I could keep track of all the little digital ephemera I carry with me in a more compact, organized way?
Turns out that I can, and look great doing it.
Talk about quick off the mark! iOS 7.1.2 may have only just been released, but the Pangu jailbreak (which offers an untethered solution for iOS 7.1.x-powered Apple devices) is already compatible with the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system.
This means that it is safe for jailbreakers to update to the latest version of iOS, before re-jailbreaking their iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with the same Pangu method.
You know what I hate about Apple computers? The precious keyboards. They look lovely, with their sleek designs and tiny little keys, but they absolutely kill my wrists and fingers. That’s why I plug a grimy old Goldtouch keyboard ($129 list when they made ‘em) into the MacBook Air that I use for work. I even take the weird-looking A-frame keyboard with me when I travel. It’s not an elegant-looking solution, but it’s a lifesaver.
I’ve dealt with typing-related RSI for decades. While I use voice recognition when I have to write something lengthy, it’s not the perfect tool to accomplish every task in every situation. Sometimes I need to hammer away on a keyboard, and when I do, the Goldtouch makes the experience far less painful. It’s split down the center, with a ball joint that lets me adjust the angle between the two halves as well as the height at the center. And the soft-touch keys just feel good to me. — Lewis Wallace
P.S. I haven’t tried the updated Goldtouch V2 ($115) or the company’s Go!2 Bluetooth mobile keyboard, but when ol’ faithful finally gives up the ghost, that’ll be my move.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
As the first new product line launched under Tim Cook, most people realize how significant the iWatch is going to be for Apple. But research firm ABI Research thinks it’s also going to be make or break for the wearables market.
Crunching figures, ABI points out that “smartwatch” shipments for the first quarter of 2014 was an unimpressive 510,000 units — with the top four players being Samsung, Sony, Pebble and Casio. ABI suggests that users are holding off on picking up wearables until the launch of the iWatch.
This is how my non-gamer girlfriend shows me which games are worth playing: She stays up until 3 a.m., wearing down the iPad mini battery to 22 percent while she tries to solve the next level.
This time, she bathed our dark bedroom in colorful reflected light while she moved Niko, Groggnar, Eek and Claude around on the screen in Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake. If it’s so important to solve environmental puzzles on the bright screen in the middle of the night, I know the game’s addictive.
This morning, still playing on the couch after charging up the iPad while she (finally) got some sleep, she told me like it is.
“It took me 15 minutes, but I finally got that level,” she bragged. “With three stars, bitch.”
SAN FRANCISCO — The iPhone has changed the way we do everything, from finding a date to finding a meal. Now it’s about to change the way innovative hardware gets made.
With smartphones manufactured in such massive quantities, basic components like chips and batteries have become dirt cheap. Smartphones also allow hardware to be dumber by providing processing power and a big screen. Add 3-D printers (which ease prototyping), crowdfunding (which has shaken up financing) and Github (for sharing software), and you’ve got a smartphone-fueled manufacturing revolution in the making.
“It’s the cellphone peace dividend,” said Brady Forrest, a former venture capitalist who heads up Highway1, an “incubator” for hardware startups that launched a few months ago here in the city’s Mission district. “So many are being made, prices for components are plummeting.”
As expected, Apple’s website is currently advertising the company’s “Back to School” promotion.
Details about the promotion appeared early today, following a period during which the Apple Online Store was temporarily closed for business. Much like last year, Apple is offering students free gift cards of varying amounts when they purchase a Mac, iPhone, or iPad. A Mac purchase will net customers a $100 Apple Store Gift Card, while iPhone and/or iPad purchases will be rewarded with a $50 gift card.
Samsung and GlobalFoundries have reportedly landed orders from Apple to produce the 14-nanometer A9 processor starting next year, according to DigiTimes.
These 14nm chips will be created in GlobalFoundries’ Fab 8 factory in Malta, New York, which Samsung will also use to produce Apple’s A-series chips. DigiTimes’ source suggests that the two foundries plan to push their initial 14nm LPE (low power early) process — which was verified back in February — into risk production in Q4 this year, with small volume production in early 2015.
Many Community fans were upset at the news back in May that the popular sitcom was being taken off the air.
Well, Yahoo has come to the rescue, announcing that it is picking up the show for a sixth season to be screened on little-known video streaming site Yahoo Screen.
Apple has notified investors that it will announce its earnings for the third fiscal quarter of the year on Tuesday, July 22. Following the release of its sales numbers, Apple executives will hold their quarterly earnings call to discuss the company’s performance and projections for the future.
Apple has rolled out two-factor authentication support for logging into iCloud.com, its web portal for apps like Mail, Calendar, and Pages.
If a user has two-factor authentication enabled on their Apple ID, attempting to access a web app through iCloud.com will now require additional identity verification. A popup asks to verify the user by sending a temporary code to a device tied to the associated Apple ID.
The native iTunes application offers many features and controls for handling your songs and movies, but sometimes it can seem too overwhelming to understand. In today’s video, we give you five quick tips that will help you master iTunes. You’ll learn how to customize your store settings, access a convenient mini player and so much more in just seconds.
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Like Flappy Bird, no one is really sure why Yo became so popular suddenly. The simple app only lets you send the word “Yo” to friends, and yet it received $1 million in funding and peaked at No. 3 on the App Store charts.
Fans of the hit TV show Game of Thrones on HBO should check out a better alternative to Yo called “Yo, Hodor.” Why? Because Hodor.
When it comes to all the elite conferences Silicon Valley is so well known for, Apple executives rarely make appearances. Apple’s shortlist includes the annual Code Conference and Allen & Co.’s business conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. The second kicks off next week.
Like last year, Tim Cook and Eddy Cue have been invited to hobnob with the tech and media world’s most powerful players. Both execs attended last year, and if they choose to do so again this year, there will undoubtedly be many interesting conversions had behind closed doors with competitors and potential partners.
For many people, Siri has been more of a nuisance than an empowering personal assistant since debuting on the iPhone 4s in 2011. Sure, she’s received some upgrades and is getting even more in iOS 8, but fancy new features mean nothing if she can’t understand what you’re saying.
Siri’s favoriting line, “Sorry I didn’t get that,” might soon be a thing of the past though as a report from Wired says the time is ripe for Apple to unleash a neural-net-boosted Siri.
Back in the heady days of the early 2000s, early social networking services like Tribe.net, Friendster, MySpace and (yep) Facebook all offered similar features: connecting with other folks via the world wide web. Orkut, founded in 2008 and owned by Google, is named after the engineer who created the service as a 20 percent project.
Of course, once Facebook became the de-facto social network in the US, services like Orkut all but disappeared here. Even so, Orkut was huge in Brazil, and even migrated to servers based there in 2008. Heck, there was even an Android and iOS app.
Unfortunately for Brazilians and other hold-outs, Orkut is shutting down in September of 2014. As of July 30, new users won’t be able to create new accounts on the service, either.
Right on the heels of iOS 7.1.2, Apple has released an update to OS X Mavericks in the Mac App Store. Version 10.9.4 of Mavericks features a fix for a bug many have been experiencing related to Wi-Fi connectivity.
There has been a known problem in OS X that keeps some Macs from automatically connecting to Wi-Fi after being woken up from sleep. Apple has addressed the issue in 10.9.4 along with general reliability improvements for waking from sleep. Safari 7.0.5 is also included.
The iPhone 6 will be the thinnest phone Apple’s every created, but it may come at big price for suppliers.
In order to save up space on the iPhone 6, supply chain sources at China Times say Apple is only using one brightness enhancement film (BEF) for the backlit LCD display. Apple used two films in previous iPhones. Reducing it to just one will allow Jony Ive to make a super thin iPhone, but getting the supplies will be tough.
Today Apple released iOS 7.1.2, a small update that includes several bug fixes, including enhanced “iBeacon connectivity and stability.” The update is available through Software Update on iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches running iOS 7.
Here are the changes in the update, as noted by Apple:
As we “kick” off a new week, we thought we’d shine a spotlight on some promotions at Cult of Mac Deals that are still going strong.
The KICK is a revolutionary new way of lighting your photos and videos – and making sure you get perfect exposure every time – and Cult of Mac Deals has the KICK for only $149. We’ve also got Metropolitan In-Ear Headphones, a bundle of Duracell batteries, and a lengthy subscription to Hacker Monthly available at incredibly low prices.
Apple has announced that it’s updating its iTunes U app with new iPad-friendly features designed to make it easier for teachers and students to use tablets for their online courses. The new features will roll out starting July 8.
“Education is at the core of Apple’s DNA and iTunes U is an incredibly valuable resource for teachers and students,” says Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “iTunes U features an amazing selection of academic materials for everyone around the world. Now, with the ability to better manage and discuss educational content, learning becomes even more personalized on iPad.”
The app’s update will let teachers create full courses entirely on their iPad by importing content from iWork, iBooks Author and other educational apps in the iOS App Store. Teachers will also be able to use the iPad’s in-built camera to incorporate photos and videos into the course material.
Siri. You love her or hate her. For many of us, Siri is a novelty at best, and an inconvenience at worst: the annoying voice who starts asking you what you want from your back pocket when you accidentally sit on your iPhone. But for those who love Siri, she can be a lifesaver … literally. Because Siri may have just helped a 2-year-old save her mother’s life.
Back in January, a Seattle-based Etsy seller started mocking up iPad cases designed to look like Trapper Keepers, Mead’s line of brightly colored, wonderfully designed 80’s folders and binders for students. We promptly declared it the best idea in the frickin’ universe, and lamented that you couldn’t actually buy them, due to licensing issues.
Well, good news, fans. Official Trapper Keeper iPad cases are now here. But they’re honestly a little less cool than the mock-ups we saw before.
If the idea of using your iOS device to help track your fitness appeals to you, it’s worth checking out the newly-updated Fitlist app.
Since one of the best things about the new wave of fitness trackers is the ability to see how you progress over time, the most useful new feature of the popular workout log is the addition of new progress graphs. These allow you to view your cardio and strength exercise history in the form of attractive, easy-to-read charts. (This feature is available to premium users only.)