Nestled amid the gentle rolling hills of my old stomping ground of Westlake Village sits Blue Microphones, little more than a half hour north of Los Angeles. There’re actually two lakes in the area: beautiful Lake Sherwood, and the grubby, man-made boating pond of Westlake Lake. Neither, to my recollection, has ever had a reported sighting of a monster.

Blue Microphones’s new USB mic is named “Nessie,” which I guess means now the area has at least one lake monster. Only in this case it’s the good, super-friendly kind of monster.

Apple introduced a few new wallpapers in iOS 7. Since the software is only in its first beta, there are only two new static images to choose from. iOS 7 also supports animated wallpapers, and Apple has included two of those to try out. If you’re interested in exploring more about the iOS 7 background, take a look at all the new wallpapers in iOS 7.

If you’d like to get iOS 7’s hi-res wallpapers on your iPhone right now, then you can download them directly from here and here. A zip file with the static version of the two dynamic wallpapers is also available here. These wallpapers are optimized for the iPhone 5 and 5th-gen iPod touch’s 4-inch Retina display.

You can also download Apple’s new OS X Mavericks wallpaper in full resolution for your Mac. It actually looks great cropped on the iPhone’s screen.

Another cool feature in iOS 7 is the ability to use panoramic photos as wallpapers. Apple will hopefully add more wallpapers before iOS 7 ships in the fall.

There are a few popular apps that already look like they were designed for iOS 7. Twitterrific 5 by The Iconfactory is one such example. Months before Apple unveiled iOS 7, Twitterrific started using the general design aesthetic Apple has now implemented across the entire OS. It’s almost like the makers of Twitterrific knew what was coming.

Following the unveiling of iOS 7 and Apple releasing the software in beta form to developers, Twitterrific’s downloads have spiked considerably, sending the app towards the top of the App Store’s charts.

Apple’s new ‘iWork for iCloud’ suite of browser-based apps are now ready for testing. Developers received a notification today that iWork for iCloud is up and ready for a test drive.

iWork for iCloud allows users to edit any iWork document from a web browser. The programs will run on a PC or Mac as long you’re running Safari, Chrome, or Internet Explorer. iWork for iCloud includes browser-based versions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.

To access the new service, developers can head to beta.icloud.com and log in.

Source: Apple

Via: FSM

iOS 7 is clearly how Apple sees the future of mobile design. It’s a radical departure from anything the company has ever done before. The general aesthetic also feels a lot more like Android and even Windows Phone 8.

Whether it’s intentional or by pure coincidence, Apple’s internal nickname for iOS 7 happens to be the same as Microsoft’s for Windows 8, according to a new report.

The App Store in iOS 7 has an new ‘Wish List’ feature designed to help you keep track of all the paid-apps you’re lusting after.

You can access Wish List from anywhere inside the new iOS 7 App Store by tapping on the Wish List icon in the upper-right corner. Apple’s put the Wish List icon on pretty much every page in the new App Store so it looks like they’re hoping users will really get into the new feature and buy more apps.

Here’s how Wish List works:

Remember when the Smart Cover for iPad was first announced, and it turned out Apple was apparently inspired by Japanese bath mats when coming up with their design? Looks like Jony Ive looked around his hotel room during a recent trip to Tokyo and let another everyday Japanese object influence the design of one of Apple’s latest products.

As the summer vacation season hits in our neck of the woods, there’s bound to be plenty of photos being taken of people having fun in the sun. Whether you’re using a simple point-and-shoot, a high-end DSLR, or even your smartphone – the photo-taking process doesn’t end once you take the shot. You’re going to want to make that shot look as great as possible afterward – and that’s where the latest Cult of Mac Deals offer can offer you a big hand.

With The MacPhun Photo Editor Bundle, you’ll get three stellar photo apps in Snapheal, FX Studio Pro, and ColorStroke. Buying all of these apps outside of this offer would run you $69 – but Cult of Mac Deals is offering you a 56% savings on these apps in this bundle. You can get all three apps in The MacPhun Photo Editor Bundle for just $29.99 for a limited time.

If Apple is going to update the iPad mini with a Retina Display a year after it’s debut, they need to get cracking on sourcing the 2,048 x 1,536 resolution, 7.9-inch displays that will drive them. Now a new rumor suggests that Apple has contracted good ol’ frenemy Samsung to make them for them.

Over the past few years Amazon has risen to be one of Apple’s biggest competitors, but before Apple launched the iBookstore, Apple and Amazon almost struck a partnership that would have allowed the two companies to control both music and books.

At Apple’s trial against the Department of Justice today in Manhattan, Senior Vice President, Eddy Cue, took the stand and testified that Apple had considered striking a deal on e-books with Amazon, but decided to join with publishers at a higher price.

Hypothetically, the partnership could have brought Kindle e-books integration into the iPad (and possibly iTunes), while the iTunes music library would  have been used in the Kindle Store.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Andrew Stone, an indie NeXT developer who worked with Steve Jobs for almost a quarter century, believes that Jobs would’ve never let Apple be a part of the United States National Security surveillance program PRISM.

Even though we don’t know the release date or price, people are absolutely drooling over the new Mac Pro that Apple announced at WWDC. It’s tiny, black, and powerful as hell, so who can blame them.

But what if Apple announced a completely different Mac than the one we saw on Monday? What if, Apple announced the Big Mac? Check out this hilarious WWDC keynote mashup video from Simon Balch to see just how incredible it’d be if Apple and The Golden Arches joined forces:

In iTunes 11, Apple gave us the ability to redeem iTunes and App Store gift cards using the FaceTime camera built into our Macs, and it is bringing the same functionality to our iOS devices with iOS 7. Instead of typing in lengthy codes, just point your camera at the gift card to redeem it.

With every new OS X release comes a fancy new wallpaper, and for Mavericks, Apple has provided us with a beautiful shot of an ocean wave. And it’s even more beautiful when you put it on a high-resolution display, because it was a whopping 5120×2880 resolution. In fact, it’s the perfect size for a 27-inch Retina iMac or Thunderbolt display.

Last week, a story about the NSA’s top-secret PRISM program broke. According to leaked documents, PRISM is a program in which the NSA is directly able to survey all data stored on the servers of pretty much every tech company under the sun, including Apple.

Apple has firmly denied even hearing about PRISM, but intriguingly, they might be required by law to do so.

Either way, it was only a matter of time when the first class-action lawsuit suing Apple for its participation in PRISM hit the courts.

iOS 7 is a bold, radical departure from Apple’s previous design aesthetic, and as such, there’s a lot of controversy right now as people struggle to figure out what they think of the new look. It’s only natural that we’re in such flux to come to terms with what we think about iOS 7: what could be more personal than the interface of the one gadget with which we have our most personal connection?

One person who has no such reservations about the design of iOS 7, though, is Susan Kare, the woman who designed many of the original Macintosh operating system’s timeless and most beloved icon.

Despite being so huge and heavy that it’s barely possible for one person to lift, some folks still manage to take the regular-sized iPad out of the house for extended periods of time. And if you’re doing that with the Retina iPad, you’ll know that once the battery has run down you’re looking at three to four weeks to recharge it, even if you were to plug it straight into the high-tension power lines overhead (hint: Do not do this).

That’s why the Justin Ultra-Slim Power Case was invented.

Apple could add a third color option to its iPhone lineup this fall when the Cupertino company launches the iPhone 5S. According to a “trusted” source, the device will be available in gold as well as black and white, while the low-cost iPhone that will launch alongside it will be available in 5 different colors inspired by Apple’s iPhone 4 Bumper cases.

Yahoo has bought the developer of the fantastic iOS apps PhotoForge and KitCam. Ghostbird’s software team will now work for Yahoo, helping to make Flickr even better. And – as ever with these things – development on both apps will stop.

Do you like the look of the new iOS 7 AirDrop feature that lets you beam things from iDevice to iDevice? Me too. But even if you have iOS 7 installed, you still can’t beam things to and from a Mac, which is arguably a more common need for basement-bound, friendless nerds like you and I.

Enter BeamApp, which does what it says on the virtual, HTML-based tin.

While competing smartphone manufacturers are producing devices in a whole host of different sizes, Apple’s iPhone has had only two screen sizes in its six-year history. But according to four sources with knowledge of Apple’s plans, who have been speaking to Reuters, the Cupertino company is “considering” iPhones with 4.7-inch and 5.7-inch displays.

It is also said to be working on a cheaper iPhone that will come in a range of different colors.

Pentax’s new Q7 has been styled to look like it was put together by somebody in shop class when told to “make a camera” out of whatever wooden offcuts were laying around the place. It can even be had in 120 different color combos, presumably all hideous.

But the Q7 does add one thing that’s worth noting: A bigger sensor. And judging by how the lenses now match that sensor in terms of 35mm equivalence, it looks like this was the plan all along.

You know what’s great? Magnets. You know what’s equally great? Filtered photos. Which makes this little DIY project – using both magnets and homemade filters – double great, right? Right guys?

It looks like the new photo filters in iOS 7 are lossless. That is, the original, untouched image file is saved as is, and the effect is applied on-the-fly. This is how non-destructive editing apps like Lightroom and Aperture do their thing.

iOS 7 has been released in beta form to those who have paid for a developer account with Apple, but the rest of the general public will have to wait. Apple plans to ship iOS 7 to the world later this fall, so for now you’re limited to seeing screenshots online and the occasional GIF.

Unless you have a jailbroken iPhone, that is. Here’s how to create iOS 7 on iOS 6.