Cult of Mac

David Shanks, CEO of Penguin Books, testified today that a provision in its e-books contract with Apple played a role in its decision to change contracts with other retailers, like Amazon.com, a crucial part of the US government’s case against Apple in the e-book anti-trust case happening now in federal court. Shanks said that the clause in question was “certainly a factor” in seeking out other retailers to an agency model, in which publishers control prices, not retailers, a model Amazon originally flouted.

In the anti-trust case, the US government is charging that Apple conspired with five publishers to fix prices for e-books between 2009 and 2010. Penguin is the first publishing company named in the suit which also includes HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, and Macmillan.

Apple has already gone on record, saying that it was the publishers that came to Apple, not the other way around.

Every year thousands of Apple developers flock to San Francisco to attend Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference to be educated in all things Apple. Over the past decade the conference has undergone some big changes as Apple has introduced products like the iPhone, Mac Pro, Intel Processors, Mac OS X operating systems, and much more.

An event that used to be lightly attended has now become the most popular developers conference in the world and sold out within 2 hours this years

Here’s a look at the many banners that have decorated the halls of WWDC over the past 11 years:

WWDC 2013 is ready to kickoff in San Francisco next week, and in preparation for the event, Apple has already started decorating Moscone West with WWDC 2013 banners.

The banner art shows the same graphics that Apple used on the official WWDC 2013 logo. the graphics appear to be a bunch of flat app icons, which support the rumors that iOS 7 will ditch its skeumorphic roots for a more minimalist and modern look. One of the tag lines for the banners reads, ‘Where a whole new world is developing.’

Here are some more pictures of Apple’s WWDC 2013 decorations:

Look, I’m no hippy; but there’s definitely something magical and awesome about the idea of transforming sunlight into music (really, I’m not a hippy — I don’t even know what patchouli oil smells like). And just like Eton’s other solar-powered Bluetooth speakers, that’s exactly what the new $200 Bluetooth-equipped Rukus XL does. Only in a bigger, badder, louder way.

The makers of Floome, a new breathalyzer dongle that clips into a smartphone’s headphone jack, say their gadget is more accurate than the Breathometer breathalyzer we featured in March, because Floome is equipped with a key ingredient missing from the former: a flowmeter.

Following a win by Samsung in the International Trade Court claiming that older Apple devices violate one of its patents, the ITC has issued an import ban on iPhone 4, iPhone 3, iPhone 3GS, iPad 3G and iPad 2 3G devices that run on the AT&T network.

In what might be Mountain Lion’s major last roar, Apple has released OS X 10.8.4, a minor update that fixes a few small bugs in Mountain Lion before the (presumed) WWDC debut of OS X 10.9.

The term “patent troll” tends to be thrown around a lot when talking about Apple, Samsung, et al.’s endless patent litigation, but there’s a big difference between companies trying to protect their patent profiles in court and the sort of trolls who exist for no other reason than to sue other companies for violations on overly broad patents that they aren’t using, stifling innovation (for example, notorious in-app patent troll Lodsys).

Reforms to the patent system to neuter patent trolls is something that have been called for for years, but it seems like President Obama is finally doing something. The White House has just announced that they are taking on the patent troll problem with seven new legislative proposal. But even if Congress won’t budge? Obama says he’s going to take five executive actions to thwart patent trolls, which he can do even without congressional approval.

Several technologies on your iPhone, including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular data, are made to continually check for signal when you’re out and about. Continual checking requires power, which comes from your iPhone (or iPad, or iPod touch) battery.

It makes sense, then, that turning these different wireless features off when you don’t need them can help your battery last a little longer. Here’s how to do just that.

Following Gmail’s snazzy addition of categories for easily filtering your inbox mail, the Gmail iOS app has also been updated to support the functionality.

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference is just a week away and although it’s highly unlikely we’ll see any new iOS devices, we will get our first glimpse at iOS 7.

iOS 7 could be one of the biggest iOS updates to date, with many rumors claiming it will be completely overhauled with a new look and new features as Jony Ive makes his mark as the head of software design. A report that was published earlier this month claims that Apple has had to pull engineers away from OS X 10.9 to help complete it.

Personally, I couldn’t be more excited about iOS 7. I made the switch to Android just before Christmas because I found Jelly Bean on the Nexus 4 to be better than iOS 6 on the iPhone 5 at a lot of things, which I wrote about back in February.

Having used Android for four months, I’ve compiled a list of things iOS 7 should learn from its biggest rival. If Apple adds these things to its own platform — or variations of them that provide the same experience — then I think iOS 7 could be fantastic.

Check out the list below and see if you agree.

Apple just published a report prepared by Keyser Marston Associates that evaluates the “Economic and Fiscal Impacts Generated by Apple in Cupertino –  Current Facilities and Apple Campus 2.”

The report was prepared for the City of Cupertino under the contract of Apple, to evaluate the concerns the city has about Apple’s future Spaceship-like campus. The report states its principal objectives as the following:

• The on-going economic impact and benefits of Apple to the City of Cupertino;
• The ongoing economic impacts and benefits to the City of Santa Clara, City of Sunnyvale, and the broader region of Santa Clara County;
• Apple’s recurring annual fiscal impacts on the City of Cupertino;
•  The construction-related impacts of Apple Campus 2 on Santa Clara County; and
•  The construction-related tax and fee revenues to be received by the City of Cupertino and other local public agencies from the construction of Apple Campus 2.”

The full 82-page report can be read after the break –

Our computers aren’t meant just for work – they’re gaming machines as well. Cult of Mac Deals has assembled a bundle of games that not only take full advantage of what your computer can do as a gaming machine, but are loads of fun as well.

And you get to name your own price for this bundle to boot!

That’s right. We’ve partnered with 6 fun game developers to bring you The Race Against Time Gamer Bundle. Timing is (almost) everything with this bundle. Four out of the six games are in some way, shape, or form linked to the presence of time. You pay what you want for two games that will keep you gaming for hours – Little Things Forever and Dungeon Hearts. But if you pay more than the average price, you’ll also receive Royal Envoy 2, Waveform, Doc Clock, and Fishdom.

There are a number of tweaks you can install on your jailbroken iOS device that’ll add quick settings toggles to your lock screen, but some of them are far more complicated — and more ugly — than they need to be. LockscreenToggles takes the concept back to basics to ensure it isn’t one of them.

Although Apple has been taking unprecedented measures in the industry to remedy the problem, the truth is that working on an assembly line mass-producing iPhones just sucks. But how bad a job is building iPhones in the grand scheme of things?

The Worst Jobs in the World Matrix, from Lapham’s Quarterly, tries to put the craptitude of working at Foxconn in a broader historical perspective. As you can see, slaving away in an electronics factory for 300 hours per month for $0.76 an hour is a difficult job, but it’s far less disgusting than being a Roman vomitorium attendant, less tedious than being a World of Warcraft gold farmer, less treacherous than being a Japanese subway pusher, and less fatal than being the court food taster for a 16th-century emperor. Perspective, people!

Source: FastCo. Design

Next time you drop your iPhone 5 and shatter the screen, you won’t have to pay a third-party to fix the display for you, or pay Apple the price of a new device to fix the screen for you. Instead, your friendly neighborhood Genius Bar will do it for $149.

Zynga has reportedly closed down Draw Something studio OMGPOP and laid off all of its staff just 14 months after it was acquired in a $180 million deal. OMGPOP released its Draw Something sequel back in April, but it appears it wasn’t the success the company hoped it would be.

At this point, the magic 8-ball is turning up “Yes” to the question whether or not Apple will announce their new streaming music service, iRadio, at next week’s WWDC keynote at a rate of almost 100%. A new report not only confirms the magic 8-ball’s whisperings, it says Apple is restructuring the iAds team to help support the new product. But don’t expect iRadio to launch at WWDC: you’ll have to wait until iOS 7 lands in September.

Yesterday, the Department of Justice published its case against Apple for allegedly conspiring with publishers to raise the price of ebooks. Now, Apple’s responded, calling the DoJ’s case “bizarre” and saying that they are twisting the words of Apple’s late co-founder, Steve Jobs.

Byword, a wonderful Markdown editor for Mac and iOS, has today been updated to version 2.0. The release brings a number of new features to both platforms, with the most notable edition being the ability to publish directly to WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger, and more.

If you haven’t been using OS X’s Mission Control lately, you’re missing out. It’s a great way to separate out your apps, full screen and not, to be just that much more productive on your Mac.

Trouble is, it seems like a fairly mouse-centric system, with users encouraged to click on the different desktops across the top or the apps in the main window area to bring them up.

Luckily, there are a couple of keyboard shortcuts to help you move between Desktop spaces, at least, and one to help you add or delete them, as well.

Apple is expected to refresh its iPad lineup this fall, but its next-generation tablets may not arrive together. According to supply chain sources in Taiwan, the fifth-generation iPad will enter production as early as next month in time for a launch during the third quarter, but we might have to wait longer for a new iPad mini.

There isn’t a much sadder sight in the modern urban landscape than a pair of friends walking together, both isolated by their own music playing on their own headphones. Why even bother meeting your friend i all you’re going to do is ignore each other?

Now, it gets a little better – and quite a lot cuter – when those friends share one pair of earbuds, maybe to listen to the same piece of music.

And then Double Music comes along and ruins everything again. Double Music is an app that will play a different track into each bud, severing the couple’s connection even as they’re physically joined by white wires.

BlackBerry announced last month that it will finally be bringing BlackBerry Messenger to Android and iOS this summer, and the news was welcomed by both existing BlackBerry users and those who have since switched to competing platforms.

Now it seems hackers are taking advantage of the excitement surrounding the app and releasing fake BBM betas for Android and iOS that could be harmful to your device.

Every once in a while an app comes along that looks – at first glance – to be just like every other app in its category. Then, when you take it for a spin, it blows you away. Tayasui Sketches is such an app. It’s a painting and drawing app for the iPad, and it does just what you’d expect: multiple brushes, colors and a few control gestures. But when you use it the slick feel, high level of polish and great results will win you over.