Cult of Mac

Just about every major tech company is working on two untapped product categories right now: wearable technology and streaming television over the internet. Apple is trying to draw in TV networks with advertising incentives, and even Intel is working on its own TV service.

It should come as no surprise that Google has been in talks with media companies about streaming premium TV over the internet. The company has reportedly demoed its new product to cable executives, but it’s still up to the networks to jump on board.

Tim Cook and co. have claimed that the Apple TV is just a hobby device, but that hasn’t stopped it from dominating the TV streaming box industry.

A new report from Frost & Sullivan claims that Apple TV now accounts for 56% of the worldwide IP streaming devices market and its nearest competitor, Roku, isn’t even close.

While the style of iOS has been described as flatter, that’s typically more true of the icon design and some of the panel and font combinations than the entire operating system.

In fact, there’s a subtle parallax effect that can be seen pretty easily behind the home page icons. I use the space and stars wallpaper, and when I tilt or twist my iPhone 5 running iOS 7, I can definitely see things almost move, or change perspective.

It’s a slick visual feature, but if it drives you nuts, or you feel icky with it in the background there, here’s how to disable it.

The Apple TV remote is  a cute little brick of sleek aluminum simplicity, but its so damn skinny and small that if you’re like me, it goes missing for weeks at a time. If you need an extra reminder to put your toys away after you’ve played with them, Bloc has a walnut stand to keep all your Apple TV gear in place.

Let’s be honest—people buy $300 headphones for two reasons: they like the way they look or like the way they sound.

Phiaton knows that, which is why they put so much effort into making the Bridge MS 500 headphones look like the interior of a Italian sportscar. But for those looking for more substance, how about this: good fidelity and great sound isolation so you can hear more nuances in your music. Sound like a good recipe?

Today Microsoft released iPhone and iPad versions of Outlook in the App Store. The native iOS app offers features that the mobile web version can’t, like incoming mail notifications.

Microsoft’s release notes:

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Apple and Samsung will meet in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit court next month as Apple steps up its bid to have a number of Samsung devices banned in the United States.

The Cupertino company is hoping to reverse the court’s decision not to remove then handsets from sale when they were found guilty of infringing Apple patents last August.

We’ve all heard stories about children who spends hundreds — sometimes even thousands — of dollars in the App Store when their parents have their backs turned. But that’s not the only place they can spend money on your iOS device.

Paul Stoute of Oregon learned that the hard way when his 14-month-old daughter purchased a vintage car on eBay using his iPhone.

When the App Store celebrated its fifth birthday last week, Apple made a number of top iOS apps and games free. One of those was Infinity Blade II, and it was the first time the title had been given away since its release in November 2011.

So it’s hardly surprising it was a massive success. In just seven days, the sword-fighting action game had attracted 5.7 million new players, with 1.7 million of those getting the game on the first day the promotion went live.

The Dashboard has been getting less and less attention lately, and so it’s surprising that it’s still in OS X Mavericks beta, to be honest.

It does have a nicer background, to be sure, but if you’re feeling like it has outlived its purpose on your Mac, here’s how to get rid of it.

Apple has today announced Logic Pro X, the most advanced version of Logic Pro to date, which boasts a new interface, new creative tools for musicians, and an expanded collection of instruments and effects. Logic Pro X also introduces new features like Drummer and Flex Pitch, and Logic Remote, which lets you play and control Logic Pro X from your iPad.

Apple may be forced to reduce its iPhone 5S orders for the fourth quarter of 2013 due to supply constraints affecting the handset’s rumored fingerprint sensor and LCD driver chips. Both components were expected to enter production in late June or early July, but that’s now been pushed back into late July, according to industry sources.

I love the look of OWC’s Envoy Pro EX. It’s a tiny external USB 3 drive which makes even a pocket HDD look bulky, and it packs a 240GB or a 480GB SSD, making it as fast as you’ll ever need.

But there’s one small problem: even the little one is $315, and the 480-gigger is almost $600. Ouch.

Spendee looks like the kind of finance-tracking app I might actually use: It’s dead simple, great looking and works great with cash. It even has a nice flat design that’ll be at home in iOS 7 – although that icon will have to go — it’s 100% Forstallian.

You gotta love the destruction of the point-and-shoot camera industry at the hands of the cellphone. After years of trying to woo us with more and more hard-drive-filling megapixels, camera makers are finally being forced to give us what we actually want. And it doesn’t hurt that these features are exactly those things that are difficult to put into phones: Big sensors and – now – viewfinders.

The latest convert looks like it’ll be Panasonic, with the newly-leaked GX7.

Ever thrown your camera up in the air in self-timer mode in order to catch a shot from a new angle? No, me neither – I’m no dummy when it comes to using-and-not-abusing my gadgets. But with the Squito, you don’t have to worry about breaking anything – it’s rugged ball with a panoramic camera inside, and it’s designed to be thrown.

Ole Zorn, the super-villain[1] behind the amazing Pythonista for iOS, has just started teasing his newest app – a Markdown text editor for the iPad. Only unlike all the other Markdown editors, this one is looks like it’s as programmable as Pythonista. I’m getting pretty excited.

OmniFocus for iPhone got an update today which lets it refresh itself in the background, in what is probably a foreshadowing of things to come in iOS7. It uses the now-familiar workaround of location-based updates, which lets an app download data in the background when you arrive or leave a predefined location.

AT&T announced today that it will rollout its own yearly upgrade program, in what seems to be a direct response to T-Mobile’s new ‘Jump’ program that was announced last week.

The new service, dubbed ‘AT&T Next,’ will begin nationwide on July 26th. Customers will be able to get a new smartphone or tablet every year without a down payment, activation fee, upgrade fee or financing fee. Sounds great, except just like with T-Mobile’s Jump plan, you have to pay a monthly fee for the perk for the first 20 months.

Here’s AT&T’s summary of Next:

It’s not exactly the belle of the ball, and its name is in serious need of some marketing help; but the LifeTrak Move C300 activity tracker makes up for its lack of charm with some powerful bonus features, like waterproofness (to 90 feet!) and the ability to also measure heart rate.

On top of all that, the device’s energy requirements are so low that its coin-sized, non-rechargeable battery will last a year.

There have been some rumors of both an iPhone 5S and an iPhone 6 coming out this summer, and while I don’t hold out too much hope of that happening–it’s too far out of Apple’s established iPhone release rhythm–this iPhone 6 concept mockup is interesting, to say the least.

The folks at Designed by M, the makers of the AL13 case we reviewed back in May, decided to put together this rather unique take on a possible iPhone 6 design, with the cut-off corners of a piece of paper straight out of Battlestar Galactica.

Why? We’re not sure, but a blog post on the Designed by M website tells a bit more.

Want to save a bit of cash on the latest Macbook Air? Now might be the time, as Apple has allowed Best Buy to discount the popular Macbook by up to $64. Other retailers, like Amazon and B&H Photo, quickly followed suit, offering their own discounts on the laptops or AppleCare.

Remain calm. Your laptop is not about to bellow wildly and charge while you bolt frantically down a narrow, cobblestoned street with a red scarf around your neck.

No, you’re actually looking at the Amped Wireless ACA1, the first Mac-compatible gizmo to generate a turbocharged 802.11ac wifi signal (it also works with PCs, but who cares).

The words “fun” and “email” probably don’t belong together. But of the small handful of email apps available for the iPad, Birdseye is certainly the most fun. It’s also the most dynamic, with some cool tricks that should come standard with the stock iPad Mail app.