Cult of Mac

Foxconn has been forced to make preparations for life after Apple following reduced demand for the iPhone and other iOS devices which has caused the company’s revenue to nosedive, The New York Times reports.

The manufacturer has been doing well off the back of Apple’s hugely successful devices in recent years, which have been contributing at least 40% of its revenue, according to analyst estimates. But after suffering a 19.2% drop in revenue during the first quarter of the year, thanks to declining iPhone and iPad orders, Foxconn is now looking at ways in which it can be less reliant on Apple.

In OS X Mountain Lion, you can set a Calendar notification for a repeating event on your iPhone, then get that notification on your Mac. Heck, you can even set a Calendar event on your Mac and get it when you’re out and about with your iPhone or iPad. It’s all a part of Apple’s iCloud integration, and it works pretty well, most days.

But what if you really don’t want to be notified of a certain type of event when you’re on your Mac? With OS X Mountain Lion, at least, you have a few more options for notifications that come from Calendar. Check it out.

I want to call Kenny Jahng right now, didn’t you?

Source: Tim Cox’s Instagram

Remember when people were wandering around idiotically saying the iPhone was a total failure in Japan?

Yup, pretty stupid, but it’s true that, at first, the iPhone didn’t catch on in Japan, and that was a problem for Apple, because Japan is the country where gadgets rule.

So what changed Apple’s fortunes in Japan? Women!

Viber, the popular cross-platform messaging service for smartphones, is no longer just for smartphones. The company has today launched new desktop applications that allow you to chat with friends; send stickers, emoticons, and photos; and make calls from a Mac or PC.

To anyone who has been paying attention to the dismal plunge in PC sales, this should serve as further proof that we are firmly in the post-PC age: tablet shipments will outnumber laptop shipments for the first time ever in 2013. Not bad for a category that was launched by a gadget that PC makers not only scoffed at when it debuted, but is less than four years old.

Rovio has launched a new service called Rovio Accounts, which allows you to pick up your saved games on any mobile device. So if you complete ten Angry Birds levels on your Android smartphone, you’ll see the same progress when you login on your iPad.

Rovio Accounts isn’t just compatible with Angry Birds, but other titles from Rovio as well. The service will initially launch worldwide inside The Croods, as well as in the original Angry Birds game for iOS in Finland and Poland.

$7 is getting close to the lower limit on prices for iPad cases – unless you choose to make your own out of recycled materials that is. Actually, the Apple Pie iPad case is made from recycled materials. It’s a cardboard folio that’ll protect your iPad from adults and kids alike.

Update: And it looks like Ran Avni, the guy taking credit for this video, might have stolen it from Isaac Royo over at Device Station. We’ve replaced the video.

This lovely burble of a concept video isn’t just as soothing as a new-age noise machine, it shows off a new concept for a new multitasking system in iOS 7.

It looks pretty, and no doubt many of you would like to see this on your iPhone, but just to tamp expectations down into a low-burning dottle, Apple’s never going to release something like this.

Do you wish you could get in on this whole one-keyboard-switching-between-multiple-devices game, only you’re wedded to some crazy old clackety keyboard that only connects via cable? Then I have good news! IOGear has a new widget that’ll hook everything up.

Sometimes all you want to do is flip through a folder full of photos, maybe cropping a few of them and deleting the worst ones. That’s exactly what Arcsoft’s new Photo+ for OS X is for. You just drag a single photo onto the app and you’re off – able to use the arrow keys to navigate every other image in the folder, cropping and deleting as you go.

Denon’s new range of audio receivers, called InCommand, has support for Apple’s AirPlay built right in alongside the great sound and embarrassment of cable hookups usually found in this kind of gadget. And that’s in addition to being able to control the unit itself from a dedicated Denon app.

Cobook, the non-sucky contacts app for iOS and Mac, has today added Livecards. Livecards are a way to share your contact info with other people. Instead of relying on those lazy idiots to update your details, you take care of it. The resulting changes are pushed to everyone who has your Livecard in their Cobook.

Yes, this is exactly how address books should have worked ever since the internet was invented.

Today is a beautiful but limited weather app. Dark Skies is that clever wether app which tells you exactly where and when it’s going to rain, so you can decide whether to grab your umbrella as you dash tot he store. The problem? U.S-only.

Now Today has incorporated Dark Skies alerts to bring this kind of accuracy to the rest of the world.

In yet another projection, DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim told CNET today that the second version of the amazing iPad Mini will indeed have a retina display, and that LG will be the main supplier of the pixel-packed screen, instead of Samsung.

“Samsung is currently not in the iPad Mini and they won’t be in the next generation. LGD is becoming a much bigger supplier than before,” said Shim, continuing that other manufacturers are slated to make the new screens, but they won’t have as prominent role.

While the production timeline Shim is predicting flies directly in the face of earlier predictions, Shim could be accurate, as a summer 2013 production run would make better sense for getting supplies ready for a holiday demand.

What if magic truly did exist? What if there were beings that could travel the infinite worlds via portals of magic, and you were to apprentice to one of them, in the form of the Marquis de Hoto, a rabbit magician. An evil spell is cast across the portal worlds, of course, as you begin to learn your new trade. It will be up to you, and you alone, to stop the progress of evil.

Developed and published by Hamburg-based Daedalic Entertainment, The Night Of The Rabbit promises to be an adventurous, beautifully hand-drawn game for Mac and PC, coming May 29, 2013.

Velox is a highly anticipated jailbreak tweak that arrived in Cydia over the weekend. It has been a long time coming, and it’s finally here. This is one of the most original and well done jailbreak tweaks I’ve seen in quite awhile. Your iOS app icons will never be the same, and it has the potential to change the way you use your jailbroken iPhone.

Facebook has updated its Messenger iOS app with the ability to send and receive stickers, which are basically large emojis that are proprietary to the Facebook platform. Stickers were added to the main Facebook app last month.

Another feature has been added back to Facebook Messenger by popular request: swiping back to remove a conversation.

Source: App Store

App Store apps that recommend other apps are getting pulled left and right. Following the removal of popular titles like AppShopper and AppGratis, it was reported last month that Apple was beginning a widespread crackdown on apps that work similarly to the App Store itself.

Now another instance of Apple targeting app sharing services has been reported. 

The Fitbit Flex has officially gone on sale for $100 online and in U.S. retail stores. We saw the “OG fitness-tracking dongle” at CES earlier this year, where it was clear that Fitbit was trying to steal the mojo from competitors like Nike’s Fuelband and the Jawbone Up. Now the Flex is out in the wild, and users can be the judge.

Bluetooth 4.0 is used to connect the silicon wristband to an Android device or iPhone. It does everything the typical fitness tracker accomplishes: counts calories and steps, monitors sleeping, and lets you share stats with friends to keep you motivated. The actual exercise is still on you, though.

Adobe made a slew of announcements at its MAX conference today, most notably the plans to make its Creative Suite (now Creative Cloud) entirely subscription based. Alongside all of the restructuring and price changes, Adobe also unveiled a new Bluetooth stylus designed to work with its iPad apps.

It’s sill in the development stage, but “Project Mighty” looks pretty cool for designers. The pressure-sensitive pen tightly integrates with Adobe software, and it stores user preferences in the Creative Cloud.

Despite announcing the sequel to its hit game Plants vs Zombies last year, PopCap still hasn’t gotten around to releasing Plants vs Zombies 2. The “late-Spring 2013” release period PopCap originally promised is about to pass by, so they’ve officially announced that the new game is coming out this July.

Four years have passed since the release of the first Plants vs Zombies, which means we should get a treasure trove of new features, weapons, plants, and zombies once the game hits. We haven’t seen any gameplay footage, but we’re sure it’s going to be great. It has to be. And to make up for the long drought, PopCap says it’s also going to release a spinoff game called Plants vs Zombies Adventures that can be played though Facebook.

Here’s a new trailer for Plants vs Zombies 2: It’s About Time –  

Even though Steve Jobs had a solid working relationship with News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, it’s no secret that Steve Jobs hated Fox News. In fact, in Walter Isaacon’s authorized biography, Steve Jobs said that “Fox has become an incredibly destructive force in our society.”

Rather than associate Apple’s brand with Fox News, Steve Jobs decided to personally order all of Apple’s ads to be removed from the conservative TV network.

Passbook may be one of the most underrated technologies on the iPhone. In theory, it lets you collect your boarding passes, movie tickets, retail coupons, and loyalty cards all in one place. In reality, it isn’t supported by too many retailers, many of whom already have their own system of handling these types of passes.

In addition, many iPhone users don’t know how to get apps that support Passbook, as the only way to find a special list of apps that are supported by the service is to open the Passbook app itself. If you’re one of those users, here’s how to get some great apps on your iPhone and carry a few less bits of paper and plastic ephemera around with you.

EA announced this morning that the newest game in The Sims series, The Sims 4, will be released in 2014. To make things even better, the game will be available on both PC and Mac.

EA says the new game will allow for single-player and offline mode. The Sims 4 will give players a deeper connection to the virtual world by offering more personalization of the world and better tools for sharing your creativity. More details on the game will be announced closer to launch.

Source: EA