Apple continues to add new capabilities to Siri, but there are still a lot of things the digital assistant can’t do. You can’t use Siri to control third-part music apps like Spotify, toggle settings, or search the App Store.
A jailbreak tweak called AssistantEnhancer takes Siri to the next level by doing all these things and more. It’s the new crown jewel of Siri tweaks, and it contains a ton of useful features that make Siri a more valuable tool.
One of the best games of last year — XCOM: Enemy Unknown — is coming to the Mac, allowing Mac gamers for the first time to tactically repel a full-on invasion of the planet Earth, one turn at a time.
What was once an iPhone-only social network has quickly become one of the world’s largest social behemoths. Instagram’s co-founder, Kevin Systrom, announced today that the photo-sharing network just surpassed the 100 million active users mark.
Compared to its parent company Facebook, 100 million active users doesn’t sound like much. But when you consider that Twitter just hit the 200 million active users mark last year, Instagram’s got something to be proud of because it’s a much younger service.
Want to hear a good argument for the possibility of Apple launching an iRadio service? According to a couple ofnew report, 2012 is the first time since 1999 that piracy is down, and the music industry has actually grown. And music streaming services like Rdio and Spotify can take all the credit.
BlackBerry has been the preferred handheld for many of the U.S. Department of Defence’s employees because it’s got the security clearance to run on the Pentagon’s network. That might all change in 2014 though when Android and iOS join the party.
The U.S. Defense Department said today that it plans to open up its networks by February 2014 and allow 100,000 mobile phones and tablets from Apple and Google to use the network.
Dropbox is a great service, and I use it both professionally and personally. I share files with friends, presentations and documents with co-workers, and I upload my iPhone photos as well as a secondary backup to PhotoStream, which can be touchy at times. Problem is, I need to ask people if they’re Dropbox users, get the email they’ve associated with the service, then log in to Drobpox and create a shared folder with that person’s email. It’s useful, and not too difficult, but it can be tedious.
That’s where ProxToMe comes in. This free app does all the discovery for you, letting you share any file from your Dropbox account with any other ProxToMe user nearby. Slick!
Rumors are swirling that Apple, a company which has been having a rocky time on Wall Street lately despite reporting their most profitable quarter ever, might announce a decision to issue a stock split tomorrow at their next shareholder meeting, to be held tomorrow.
Owners of late 2012 Macs like the Mac mini, the new iMac or the MacBook Pro with Retina Display are reporting a major problem with their machines: they can’t re-install Mountain Lion or even re-install from a Time Machine backup if their systems get corrupted.
Apple has a well documented history of banning everything that has anything to do with pornography, even if it’s only remotely related. It’s nice that Apple wants to keep the App Store clean, but their obsession with eliminating porn from computing has a lot of collateral damage.
In its latest push to get porn off your computer, Apple now deletes all iCloud emails that contain the phrase ‘barely legal teens.’ It doesn’t send the messages to spam, or flag them, it just straight up deletes them, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
There are a couple of different ways to protect your MacBook from abuse, but this is a new one to us. A Reddit user decided that he was tired of the dings and scratches on the front of his 2008 MacBook, so he grabbed a can of Plasti-dip and gave it a nice plastic coating to cover everything up.
It’s either the most brilliant way to cover up your MacBook’s scars, or the absolute worst. We’re not sure. Plasti Dip was originally created to help people rubberize the grips of their tools, but people have started putting it on everything from car bumpers to pieces of art.
Once you’re tired of the plastic coating you can just peel it off, but we think a protective case would be a better idea so you don’t get plastic in your USB port.
Here’s what the MacBook looked like after its final Plasti Dip coating:
Last summer we went hands-on with the Leap Motion, a futuristic controller for the Mac that lets you interact with OS X apps like Tom Cruise in Minority Report. It was a stunning experience, and it made the mouse and trackpad feel suddenly obsolete.
Developers have been flocking to the Leap platform since last year, and now Realmac Software has a big announcement to make.
The folks at Realmac have been testing the Leap Motion controller with their most popular app, Clear. The Mac version of the task manager will be fully compatible with the Leap Motion when it ships to the public.
Yesterday we showed you the ZTE Open, the first entry-level smartphone running Mozilla’s new Firefox OS. Other companies, like Sony, are planning to release Firefox OS phones as well. Mozilla has been trying to get the word out at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
During a recent talk at MWC, Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs touted Firefox OS as a new platform to disrupt Android and Apple’s hold on the industry.
Keeping a cable on you at all times to charge your iPhone is a pain in the ass, mostly because the wires get all tangled and they take up too much space.
Last summer we saw the nifty Kickstarter project called ChargeCard that aimed to put an iPhone charging cable in your wallet. Well the project got funded and is now ready to make its way to your wallet.
BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – It’s not all announcements of exciting new Android handsets with fractionally faster processors here at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Oh no. You’ll also find rose-tinted spectacles. Yes, Elecom – maker of some of the most accessorial iAccessories ever – now makes some specs that will stop your eyes from being ruined – ruined! – by blue light.
Last week a Staples Exec gloated that the office supply chain superstore had struck a deal to sell Apple products very soon. At the time, we didn’t know which Apple products Staples would sell, but for now it looks like they’re just selling accessories.
If you want to buy an Apple TV, Magic Mouse, Smart Cover, EarPods, or any other Apple accessories, you can now purchase them from Staples’ online store for the U.S.
BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – Excito is an AppleTV-a-like puck which hooks up to your home network and lets you stream TV, music and movies to any stereo or screen in the house.
So what, right? The Apple TV already does that? The difference is that the Excito only uses your phone as a remote, and streams the content either direct from the internet, or from your own local media server. Oh, and it costs around half the price if the already-cheap Apple TV.
Be careful what you request on Apple’s website. While you might think you’re passing on the opportunity to get something beautiful engraved on your iPod, you might actually be requesting it.
That’s what happened to one unfortunate redditor who swears he totally didn’t want Apple to engrave anything on his iPod. This joke has been around for years, but it’s still funny, right?
Source: Reddit
Via: Gizmodo
BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – You’re stuck in the dessert. You are thirsty, hot, and – worst of all – your cellphone is dead. You discover that you have a teaspoonful of water that you had previously overlooked. Do you a) Drink it? or b) use it to recharge your phone.
What?
Ken Segall has a long history with Apple. He worked with Steve Jobs for over 14-years as the creative director at TBWA/Chiat/Day. Segall is the guy who came up with the ‘Think Different’ campaign, literally put the ‘i’ in iMac, and he’s even got his own book about Steve Jobs.
When it comes to Apple, Ken knows what he’s talking about, and right now, he’s not happy at all with how Apple’s been approaching their ads. In Ken’s opinion, Apple is getting beat up by Samsung because Samsung is producing great ads, and Apple isn’t.
You ever do that thing where you have to move your mouse around, jiggling the little thing just to find the dang cursor? I do it all the time these days, with my smaller screen Macbook Air and the Mac Mini that’s connected to the HDTV across the room from me, since there’s so much going on onscreen that I often lose track of it.
There’s an easy way to fix this problem, and it involves the Accessibility options that come built right in to your Mac OS X system.
BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – Here’s something I wish would come to a future iPhone, or — even better — an iPad: e-ink. Imagine being able to switch to an e-ink version of the tablet and read in bright sunlight. Or turn off the various radios and enjoy a battery life measured in months, not hours.
That’s what the e-ink phone can do.
BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS –
RadBlocker might sound like some lame anti-skateboarding device from the 1980s, but it is in fact an Israeli company dedicated to keeping your brains unscrambled. And nestled amongst its RF-denying belt holsters (for Dad!) and laptop trays is this amazing pair of headphones: Echo Tubez.
Well, it may be past the officially announced February 22 date, but Canadian game developer Beamdog just sent us an email announcing the availability of Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition for OS X. You can buy it now via the Beamdog site, or wait for the Mac App Store version, which the devs promise is coming soon.
Going paperless is a goal of mine. I’d love to be able to keep all my important documents, like banking paperwork and medical records, all safely and cleanly tucked away into the digital ether. And, while productivity apps are fairly common in the Mac App store, when Apple made document-organizing app, doo, an Editor’s Choice app this week, well, it certainly piqued my interest.
