Cult of Mac

This is the Anti-Loneliness Bowl, and it is designed to hold your iPhone close so that you need never experience a single second of solitude, even while slurping down some cheap noodles.

Apple has put up some marketing material for Valentine’s Day, February 14th. “There’s more than one way to say I love you,” and to Apple that means iPad. There are no actual product discounts for Valentine’s Day, so don’t get too excited. Apple suggests that you send your sweetie a new iPod with some gift wrapping. You can also get iOS devices custom engraved with all kinds of cute, cuddly messages. Gross.

Source: Apple Store

At the end of last year the blogosphere got all excited about Mailbox, an upcoming iPhone app that promises to reinvent the way you do email. Developed by Orchestra, the app is finally coming in a few weeks, and it will be totally free. Demand has been so huge that everyone won’t be able to use Mailbox the day it launches in the App Store; you’ll need to activate it separately.

When you are finally able to download Mailbox in the App Store, a message will show you how many people are in front of you in line. A code will be texted to your iPhone’s phone number that gives you access to start using the app. It may seem unnecessary, but the folks at Orchestra are trying to guarantee that their servers stay up and running as more and more users jump on. Mailbox’s servers compress incoming emails so they arrive faster than normal on your iPhone.

If you’ve just realized your iPhone takes better photographs than your dedicated point-and-shoot, but you miss a traditional viewfinder, check out the new iPhone Viewfinder from Photojojo. Using a screw-on suction cup, the Viewfinder sticks to your iPhone’s display and allows you to block out the rest of the world while you’re taking snaps. It sounds crazy, and at $30, that’s exactly what it is.

In my childhood home, a Dust Donut was what we called and cake or cookie that had gotten lost down the back of the sofa or under an armchair, only to be rediscovered weeks or months later, covered in (you guessed it) a layer of dust and lint.

However, the Dust Donut we’re talking about today is a simple aftermarket weather seal for your Canon SLR lenses.

AMD has made two big re-hires, one being Wayne Meretsky, a former technical lead for OS X at Apple. Another is Charles Matar, a former employee who went to Qualcomm and has now been made AMD’s vice president of System-on-Chip Development. Both men bring chip design expertise, which AMD sorely needs if it hopes to remain competitive with the likes of Nvdia.

Meretsky worked on the Mac back in the 90s, and he is now AMD’s vice president of Software IP Development. This isn’t the first time AMD has hired from Apple’s talent pool.

Pocowool for iPad is the big brother to the Pocowool iPhone case, a minimal felted-wool taco which doubled as a clutch bag/purse. The iPad version draws more than a little inspiration from the Don’t Panic, another wool-and-leather case for the iPad, but opts for a slightly simpler design.

Amazon has today announced that its in-app purchasing service, which is already available on the company’s Kindle Fire tablet and other Android devices, is coming to Mac, PC, and web games. This will allow developers to take advantage of Amazon’s service on those platforms to provide their customers with a new way to purchase additional content using their credit card or virtual Amazon currency.

While Amazon isn’t the first company to offer an in-app purchasing system, its service does come with some advantages that developers may not get from its rivals. One of those advantages is that their content will be available via Amazon.com.

New on the App Store today from Lucky Frame is a fantastic musical adventure called Wave Trip. And what a trip it is: a trip into amazing.

Over the weekend, a rumor from overseas claimed that Apple will announce a 4.8-inch iPhone “Math” alongside a 4-inch iPhone 5S. But it didn’t stop there; the same sources also said that a third iPhone model with a 12-megapixel camera is set to debut “before Christmas” this year. Sounds farfetched, to say the least.

What seems like a good bet for Apple’s 2013 iPhone plans is the prospect of a less expensive model geared towards emerging markets like China. According to a new rumor today, Apple is readying two 4-inch iPhones for 2013 with in-cell display technology. But what about the iPhone Math?

Thread is a contacts app for the iPhone and iPad which follows the current trend in flat, minimalist interface design. If you’re a fan of the latest Twitterific, or Letterpress, then you’re going to love the look of Thread.

Apple celebrates the Chinese New Year by offering its fans in Asia one-day “Red Friday” deals, similar to the Black Friday sale it holds for customers in the United States. And the Cupertino company has today begun teasing the event via its online store with a big red advert that promises “great gifts for everyone on your list.”

Although Mozilla has stated that it won’t produce hardware for its upcoming Firefox OS, the company has teamed up with Spanish startup Geeksphone to offer a pair of developer devices. Called Keon and Peak, the devices are designed to provide developers with the opportunity to “tap the future of mobile” and get to grips with the platform that will soon be trying to steal marketshare from Android and iOS.

What could possibly be dorkier than taking photos with your iPad? Taking those same photos with your iPad on a tripod, that’s what. So if you’re wearing a polo shirt and chinos, and have a phone holster on your belt, then this is for you: The iStabilizer tabMount.

This is the iLID, billed as “The World’s Thinnest iPhone Wallet.” And that may well be true. What we know for sure about the iLID is that it’s a plastic case with a teeny, tiny chamber on the back for stowing cash, cards and keys.

One of the trickier things about creating a playlist for any party is making sure you have the right music for the people you’ve invited. Sometimes, though, you might want to give this nerve wracking process a miss, and let the guests at your house choose the music.

Here’s how to do just that, using nothing more than your Mac and the iTunes Album Artwork screensaver.

The shipping delay for the 21.5-inch iMac increased today to 2-3 weeks on the U.S. Apple Online Store. Prior to this, the new all-in-one was shipping in 7-10 days, and that had been the case since early December. Now new customers will have to wait until at least mid-February for their machine to turn up at their door.

Verizon has today announced its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2012, which has been its best yet in terms of subscriber growth. The company added 2.1 million new customers during the three-month period, bringing its total number of subscribers up to 98.2 million, with 58% of those customers using a smartphone.

Lucky Frame today announced the immediate availability of Wave Trip for iPhone and iPad. This is a music-focused, arcade-style game for iPhone and iPad in which players control a geometric astronaut, helping her travel through worlds of gorgeous artwork and dangerous enemies. She’s got to save her friends, and she needs you to help.

Twitterrific has become one of our favorite Twitter clients for iOS since it was overhauled back in December, and The Iconfactory continues to make it even greater with every update. The latest, version 5.0.2, brings a number of new features, plus a whole host of improvements to things like the in-app browser, VoiceOver, and lists.

You’ve probably seen stills of Ashton Kutcher dressed up in 1970s Steve Jobs attire, and that’s because he’s playing the former Apple CEO in a new biopic called jOBS. His co-star, Josh Gad, is playing co-founder Steve Wozniak. The film is premiering at the Sundance Film Festival and then hitting theaters in April.

The annual Macworld/iWorld conference kicks off later this month. Kutcher and Gad will be giving the opening talk, entitled “Playing Steve and Woz.”

Home automation is here, but it isn’t cheap — unless you go the smart route with Securifi‘s new Almond+ router. For $100, this thing has much of what you’d expect from a top-tier router: Fast, next-gen 802.11ac compatibility (but still works with this-gen “n” devices), a claimed 5000 ft radius of coverage, four ethernet ports, a USB port and some slick mounting options.

We caught wind of the Mauz iPhone dongle from Spicebox last week during CES, and promised you a closer look; here it is. You’ll remember that the dongle connects to your Mac over wifi and lets you control it from your iPhone in three unusual ways: by flicking your iPhone, waving your hand over it or making a 3D-model on your Mac mimic the movements of your iPhone in real space.

I still have a Message Pad 110 at my house. It’s the greenish-grey of the standard retail version of the Apple proto-PDA, and it still rocks. However, were I to have a spare $1350 to purchase this clear, limited production prototype Newton that was originally given out to some folks at Apple’s 1994 developer conference, I would jump at the chance. Seriously, they only made about 400 of these bad boys.

The auction on eBay ends on January 26, so if you’re hankering for this sweet bit of Apple history, now might be the time to jump in.

Today, Imangi Studios announced that Temple Run 2–sequel to runaway hit mobile game, Temple Run–recorded an outrageous 20 million downloads in its first week on the iTunes App Store. The game shot up to the number one free app in only eight hours, and is now the number 2 top grossing app on the App Store charts. Pretty amazing for a free to download game, right?