Cult of Mac

Apple stock plummeted recently after a rumor went around that Foxconn had instituted a hiring freeze based upon a slowdown in iPhone 5 production. Foxconn quickly and emphatically deniedthat the freeze had anything to do with the iPhone 5… but what was the cause of the hiring freeze, then?

Here’s an interesting theory: Foxconn had to freeze hirings this year because, under pressure from Apple, they are treating employees so much more nicely that workers are no longer abandoning their jobs in droves after Chinese New Year.

Although these leaked images should be taken with a huge grain of salt, multiple photos purporting to be the rear aluminum shell of the second-generation iPad mini have leaked online, showing the next mini to be slightly thicker than the existing model… highly suggestive of the next iPad mini having a Retina display.

There’s this really cool, funny, slick video made by a bunch of Israelis called Sight, in which a guy walks around in a world where everything he sees is overlayed by augmented reality. Everything. All the time. Sounds far-fetched? Not so much anymore.

Today, Metaio announced that their new augmented-reality chip, called the Metaio AREngine, will make its debut in ST-Ericsson phones — in a handset(s) that may be available to the public as soon as the end of this year, or early 2014 if things move more slowly.

Rumors say that Apple is making an iWatch with a curved glass display, and the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office just granted a patent for such a device. The patent in question was filed by Apple back in August 2011, and it describes a “touch-sensitive” bracelet that wraps around the human wrist and locks into place.

Apple calls it a “wearable video device” with a flexible display that “conforms to an appendage of the end-user.” The watch would be used to communicate with another device, like an iPhone.

Basil is just about my favorite iPad cooking app. It doesn’t come loaded with recipes, nor does it feature videos of people slicing and sautéing fancy ingredients. Instead, Basil is a version of your paper notebook, only better. And it’s just about to get a huge makeover.

For many people who bought the third-generation iPad, the faster, Lightning-equipped fourth-gen model came far more quickly than expected. Here in America, that’s lead to a bunch of grumbling, but in Brazil, it’s sparked a class action lawsuit, claiming that the update was tantamount to planned obsolescence.

Greenlight Capital’s David Einhorn is a very influential Wall Street investor who is going after Apple for proposing to allegedly eliminate preferred stock options from AAPL shareholders. Apple recently started issuing small dividends to investors, and preferred stock would entitle investors to fixed dividends instead of the fluctuating common-stock dividends.

Einhorn and Greenlight Capital will hold a conference call today with interested Apple investors to discuss their ideas on how Apple should use its massive cash pile.

Ray-Ban, the sunglasses company, has a rather neat take on Instagram-style retrification filters. Instead of releasing yet another photo-filtering app, Ray-Ban’s Ambermatic actually shoots your photos through a real pair of Ambermatic shades.

You know when your friend posts an awesome picture of their latte or the tasty dessert they had after their big plate of pasta last night to Instagram, and you really want to save that picture so that you can drool over it more than once? Well now you can, thanks to Instahancer, a new tweak for jailbroken iPhones.

As its name suggests, Instahancer enhances the Instagram app with a number of useful features, including zoom, the ability to share pictures to your camera roll, and the option to share them via email.

PopCap’s beloved Plants vs. Zombies has today been made available for free in the App Store. The reduction applies to both the iPhone and iPad titles, which were previously priced at $2.99 and $6.99 respectively. If you don’t already have it, it’s well worth adding to your collection.

Is it just me, or have SLR cameras gotten really boring in the last few years? I mean, I know they’re awesome machines and all, but they don’t do anything new. And all the while the rest of the camera world is pulling farther and farther ahead.

The iPhone in my pocket not only takes photos, it edits movies and shares my pictures with the world, wherever I am. And Sony’s incredible RX1 is pretty much a full-frame SLR in the body of a pocket camera.

Meanwhile, cameras like Nikon’s new D7100 would have been impressive a few years ago, but now they’re just that same old thing, with some bigger numbers on the spec sheet.

In the olden days, where getting the exposure of your photos right was much harder thanks to the fact that you didn’t get to see the result until your prints came back from the lab, people would sometimes rely on a separate incident light meter, which would measure the light falling on the subject, and not the light reflected by it.

Now, such a piece of hardware is being made for the iPhone…

I love Do Not Disturb on my iPhone. I’ve got it scheduled to activate at 8 pm each night, and de-activate at 7 am every morning. That way, all except the most important things get to bother me when I’m with my family, in bed, and sleeping.

Mac OS X has a Do Not Disturb feature, as well, but it has to be manually activated at the top of the Notification Center by toggling the Show Alerts and Banners button to OFF. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could schedule it to turn off and on at specific times? The Automator script for Calendar below will do just that.

Twitterrific for iOS has received its first major update since it was overhauled with version 5.0 back in December. In addition to mute filters for users, hashtags, and domains, version 5.1 brings support for new image services, a new font, and a whole stack of improvements. Check out the full list of changes below.

Netflix has today introduced an enhanced player interface for iPad with version 3.0 of its iOS app. The update also brings back the zoom icon so that you can quickly switch between fullscreen and widescreen viewing modes, and better placement of the player controls.

Flickr’s iOS app, which pretty much relaunched the company into mobile after years of creeping neglect, has gotten a pretty significant update. No, it has’t yet gotten an iPad-native version, but you will like the new features nonetheless.

Funtastic Photos brings together all the top photo enhancing possibilities from Photoshop and allows you to apply them to your photos in just a click. And at only $19 thanks to Cult of Mac Deals, Funtastic Photos is easily the best value photo editor, printing, and sharing software on the market!

Like the Plantronics Voyager Legend we reviewed a few months ago, Jabra’s new folding-boom Motion series incorporates motion sensors — so they can do things like automatically answer calls when you place the headset to your ear, and even automatically adjust the volume.

About a month ago, right after the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas, Disney held a small, invitation-only press conference in Los Angeles where they revealed their ambitious, stunning new cross-platform Infinity game universe. They invited us, of course. Only problem was, Infinity had practically nothing to do with anything Apple.

After all the fanfare, when the event was almost over, I pulled aside one of the Disney folks and asked why the heck they’d invited me; turns out iOS is why I was there, and that they had a big mobile-related announcement coming — and this picture just might be its enigmatic messenger.

With Nintendo’s Wii U and Microsoft’s Smart Glass initiatives, it’s not surprising that Sony would find their own second screen solution, this one via a PlayStation app, planned for both iOS and Android devices. The PlayStation App will allow gamers playing Sony’s newly announced PlayStation 4 gaming console to look at in-game maps, buy games from the PlayStation Store while on the go, or watch other gamers play on their own PS4s.

If you’re like me, you’re always on the hunt for gorgeous wallpapers to lovingly bestow upon your shiny gadgets. Merek Davis has curated a fantastic selection of wallpapers by designer Kyle Gray, and you can download them all in Apple-friendly resolutions from his website.

I love this collection of stuff because it’s all wonderfully minimal. Loud and busy wallpapers are distracting, but these are simple enough to fade into the foreground of your display. Really nice.

The Logitech Easy-Switch ($100) is a Bluetooth keyboard that’s designed to work with both Mac and iOS devices — at the same time. It’ll connect to up to three devices simultaneously, then it will allow you to quickly switch between them as and when you need to.

Its built to compliment your Mac, with an aluminum top cover, black accents, and black laser-etched keys that look right at home in front of an iMac or Thunderbolt Display. It has a built-in battery that’s rechargeable via USB, and it offers up to a whole year of power — depending on how you use it, of course.

The Easy-Switch also has a row of function keys, that’ll allow you to adjust brightness, control media playback and volume, and use features like Mission Control. But its best feature, at least in my opinion, is its backlit keys, which allow you to type comfortably in a dark room.

The Easy-Switch is by far the best keyboard I’ve used. It’s better than my old Logitech keyboard, and it’s better than Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard. Let me tell you why.

Square, the mobile payment startup that lets you pay for your coffee with an iPhone app, has announced a new product for small business owners. Since Square already specializes in helping merchants use the iPhone and iPad to process payments, the company is launching what it’s calling a “Business in a Box.” The package includes an iPad stand, cash drawer and optional receipt printer. It lets Apple’s tablet totally replace a traditional cash register.

Yesterday it was reported that malware had infiltrated the Macs of Apple’s employees. It was big news because this is the first attack to affect Apple internally on such a big scale. The source of the malware was traced back to a popular forum for iPhone developers called iPhoneDevSDK. A vulnerability in a Java plugin on the site allowed for hackers to hijack the plugin and use it to insert malware.

While iPhoneDevSDK has been a dangerous site to visit due to the hack, the site’s administration has confirmed that it is “clean” to use again.

As Apple continues to expand its presence internationally, the company has reportedly created a new executive position for handling business affairs in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa. An unverified report claims that Josh Rosenstock, former Director of External Communications for luxury car maker Rolls Royce, has been hired to fill the spot.