I can think of little more boring than grinding away on a gym treadmill the thump, thump thump of your heavy feet slamming out a soporific beat over the even more mind-numbing whirr of the machine. Running outside is dull enough; running inside must be insufferable.

Which is why Steve invented the iPad. For reading while you’re at the gym: how else can you explain its bright, easy-to-read screen or it wipe-clean glass front? The problem? Jiggle. That is, your head is moving, your iPad’s screen isn’t and the mis-match makes reading hard, which is the problem the Run-n-Read purports to solve.

Quick, tell me what you thought when Facebook bought Instagram last year. Your first thought — more of a feeling, really — was probably an impending sense of doom, as if a planet with the face of a demon had just been announced to be hurtling towards Earth. But after that passed and you realized Facebook buying Instagram wasn’t going to be the end of the world, my guess is you mostly just shrugged and said, “I wonder how long it will take them to mess it all up with ads.”

Well, Facebook is taking it slow. In fact, seventeen months after they first purchased Instagram, they’re only now starting to talk about how they’re going to mess it all up with ads! Thanks for the restraint, Facebook.

Are you a big user of the iOS Kindle app? If you intend on updating to iOS 7 first thing when it drops next week, you might want to update your Kindle app sooner rather than later. A new critical update has been released that Amazon says will prevent iOS 7 from messing your Kindle library up.

Microsoft has today launched Xbox Music on Android and iOS almost a year after the music streaming service made its debut alongside Windows 8. The apps allow subscribers to stream tens of millions of songs straight to their mobile devices, and create playlists that sync across your smartphone, tablet, PC, and Xbox 360.

Microsoft has also updated its Xbox Music web app to offer free, ad-supported streaming for all.

You know the drill: you get some crazy attachment in the mail, and you need to convert it to a format you can use. And – of course – you’re on your iPhone or iPad.

Maybe it’a a FLAC file you want in AAC, or a Microsoft DOC file that you’d prefer to see as a PDF. On the Mac you can convert these with little problem, but on iOS? Well, it’s now actually even easier than it was on the desktop. If you use CloudConvert anyway.

Go figure. Just a week and a half before Apple is set to launch iOS 7 out into the world, someone has finally succeeded in hacking iOS 6.1.4. Oh, the irony!

Remember the Radius? It was an iPhone case so minimal that it was almost invisible when viewed from anywhere but the back, and weighed in at just 4.4 grams, a weight too light to even register on the scale of ounces [1]

The Corners 4 somehow manages to be even more minimal than the Radius, ditching that heavy x-shaped brace on the back and just putting a little round puck on each corner of the iPhone.

At an event in Japan today, Sony unveiled the new PS Vita TV, a tiny set-top box that will sell for around $95 and look to compete with devices like the Apple TV. Not only will it let you stream content from services like Hulu and Sony’s own Video Unlimited service, but if you connect a DualShock 3 controller, it will also allow you to play PSP and PS Vita games on your TV.

PRONGGGG! That’s the name of the company that makes the clevertastic PocketPlug, an iPhone case that comes with a built-in charger so you can just flip out its prongs and stick them into the nearest available wall socket.

If you’ve been running the iOS 7 beta, or have seen it up close, then you’ll be familiar with the ugly icon problem, in which some icons have janky edges thanks to a change of the corner radius in iOS 7. You can see the changes in this animated GIF from Czech site Letem Světem Applem (or something), which shows the design change as applied to the icons in the iTunes Store.

Some of you poor folks live in a country where the police has been militarized to such an extent that it’ll shoot its citizens just for pointing a cellphone at them wrong. So just what would your public “servants” (paid by you via your taxes) make of the Urban Holster, a neat-looking belt-bag that looks like nothing more than a place to stow a pistol?

Microsoft has a weird business model, and a fragile one.

Their model is: Get people to need Microsoft software, then sell that software at high prices.

Contrast this with Apple’s model, which is: Get people want your consumer electronics so bad they’ll pay a lot for it, then sell the hardware, software, services and content at high prices.

And finally, Google’s model: Get people use the Internet more by making it awesome and free, and make money when people use the Internet.

All three companies make operating systems for phones, tablets and desktop computers.

But which models will succeed in the future and which will fail?

I think it’s clear that Google’s model is most likely to succeed and Microsoft’s most likely to fail. And Apple will do just fine.

Here’s what’s happening.

There are several offers at Cult of Mac Deals that may have flown under the radar lately. As we leave the weekend behind and gear up for a new week, we’re going to shine a spotlight on two offers that you may not have had a chance to discover during a busy start to September.

A newly discovered Apple patent reveals how the iPhone’s redesigned Home button will work as a fingerprint scanner.

It’s widely rumored the iPhone 5S will include a fingerprint scanner built into the Home button. But putting a fingerprint scanner into the Home button presents Apple with a problem. The Home button is used as the primary navigation device. Pressing the Home button quits apps and returns the user to the Home screen. If the fingerprint Home button is used as an authentication device, to conduct a secure online purchase say, the user needs to avoid accidentally pressing it. The last thing they want is to quit the browser and be returned to the Home screen.

The solution is a capacitive ring built around the Home button that detects the user’s finger without a button press.

Despite rumors that Apple will announce a new Apple TV at its September 10th iPhone event, no such hardware unveiling is planned, according to AllThingsD. But a big software upgrade will be announced, and it will reportedly add new AirPlay functionality that makes it easier to watch content you purchased from the iTunes Store on a friend’s Apple TV.

The time ’round on the Cult of Casts: it’s finally confirmed! New iPhones are coming September 10th… we’ll run through our expectations for the big day and offer a bold prediction of a big 5S spec bump. Then, Apple’s about to do something no tech company has ever done, and… seriously Samsung, a smart watch?

And stick around for our new segment, CultCast Second Hour, and catch our conversation with professional video editor and visual effects artist Mike Gaines as we talk the pros and cons Final Cut X; what software the editing pros use; the best cameras for indie projects; and all the Mac gear you need for a solid video product rig; plus so much more.

Have a few laughs and get caught up on all the finest Apple stories in the land. Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the unadulterated audio enjoyment begin. Show notes up next.

Everybody likes whining about Apple. The company doesn’t innovate anymore, critics say. Their new phones are boring, the same old wine in a line of colorful new bottles. The “S” releases are always just tweaks of yesterday’s iPhone, and are not fundamentally different. Android phones dominate global market share, and have caught up to and zoomed past Apple in every relevant way.

The naysayers can say nay all they want: Apple’s iOS market share numbers are about to explode like an iPhone 5 plugged in with a cheap Chinese charger.

It’s finally here! Terraria for iOS brings the 2D Minecraft-inspired crafting, mining, and fighting open-world game to your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, and boy is it fun!

Developer 505 Games spent a ton of time making this work well on the touchscreen, and it shows, with controls that, while they take some getting used to, work really well to bring the complexity of a game like Terraria to our favorite gaming devices. Here’s a video of a bit of the tutorial, so you can see for yourself.

In light of yesterday’s shocking news that the NSA has deliberately inserted weaknesses into computer security products, the developer of popular password and security app for Mac and iOS, 1Password, has written a fairly telling blog post on their vulnerability to this type of NSA intervention.

Here’s what AgileBits says:

Has 1Password been deliberately weakened?

No.

Have we, AgileBits, ever been asked/compelled/pressured/contacted by any entity asking us to weaken 1Password?

No.

That’s the easy part; anyone could say that. Let’s look a bit deeper.

The prospect of Apple redesigning the iPhone’s home button has been floating around the rumor mill for years, but until now it never had much weight. But as the launch of the iPhone 5S draws near, it appears that the iconic home button could finally see its first redesign.

Since the 5S is expected to feature a fingerprint sensor, expect the look of the home button to change. Here’s why:

If you were planning on being one of the first in line to buy the upcoming iPhone 5S or 5C, you’ve been beat. Two guys from Apple reseller Sell Your Mac showed up at the iconic Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York City this morning only to find that two other guys were already camped out.

Apple won’t even be announcing its new iPhones until Tuesday, but that hasn’t stopped lines from forming. A lot of companies do this kind of thing for brand promotion and media attention, but waiting in a line for two weeks to get a new iPhone takes commitment either way.

Regardless of their motives, props to the Sell Your Mac guys for getting in line so early. And to the dudes that were already there, your obsession with Apple is unquestioned.

Source: @SYM_Jon

After years of negotiations, Apple is ready to bring the iPhone to the largest carrier on earth, China Mobile. Rumors have said that the two have reached an agreement for this fall, and now The Wall Street Journal is reiterating those claims, adding that Foxconn has been enlisted to start making iPhone 5Cs for the carrier.

The e-book price-fixing saga between the U.S. government and Apple has finally come to an end. After a long and messy trial, presiding judge Denise Cote has given the final ruling against Apple. The injunction isn’t as punitive as expected, but there are still several stipulations that will change the way Apple does business regarding the iBookstore.

My 13-inch MacBook Air is a fantastic portable computer – fast, light, crazy battery life and with a “bigger” screen than my old 13-inch aluminum MacBook[1]. But as a desktop computer it sucks: only two USB ports, no Ethernet, and a tiny amount of storage.

Which is exactly why the Landing Zone exists. It’s a dock that stays on your desk, hooked up to all your peripherals, and which grabs onto your MacBook like a facehugger grabs onto, uh, a face.

I’ve been using one for a while now, and it’s almost entirely excellent.

In the final months leading up to the next major iOS release, there’s barely enough activity on the jailbreak front to fill a couple of conference rooms. But with the public release of iOS 7 just around the corner, it’s like the calm before the storm as hackers gear up for what may be the toughest system to crack yet.

Developers, hackers, and hardcore fans gathered in late August at JailbreakCon in New York City, an annual summit for the meeting of the minds within the jailbreak community. And while the conference’s founder, Craig Fox, wasn’t “overly pleased” with attendance for the third edition, he still considers the event a success. Why? It fulfilled its mission.

For the past few years, JailbreakCon has played a crucial role in providing face time to code jockeys from different continents who would otherwise only know each other by Twitter handles. Friendships are formed and ideas are shared. This year was no different. And as the release of iOS 7 draws near, jailbreaking’s closely-knit group of hackers and developers is getting back in the game.