In the latest spat of the carriers, AT&T ran a one-page ad in newspapers last week attacking T-Mobile and claiming that the purple carrier drops two times more calls and is 50% slower.
It hasn’t taken long for T-Mobile to respond with their own one-page newspaper ads, which are simply brilliant: “If AT&T thought our network wasn’t great, why did they try to buy it?” Touché. T-Mobile’s got a couple of other ads to taunt AT&T, which you can check out here.
The Rumor: Apple is going to kill the headphone jack in favor of Lightning connected headphones.
The Verdict: You're kidding right? Forbes writer Gordon Kelly laid out his argument why the headphone jack is going to get axed after seeing Apple's MFi specifications for headphones using the Lighting port.
Apple's never been afraid to kill old tech, but there's not a single Lightning cable headphone set on the market yet. How's Apple going to placate millions of unhappy customers who now have to go buy Lightning headphones?
According to Gordon, Apple will just sell everyone an expensive Lightning port to 3.5mm headphone adapter, which isn't totally unprecedented, but there's a huge difference between swapping a proprietary port for another (30 Pin for Lightning) and ditching the world's most popular audiojack. Ditching the headphone jack in the next two years is about as likely as Apple releasing a hologram iPad next year - not gonna happen.
Yesterday, reports hit that Tim Cook and Beats CEO Jimmy Iovine had met to talk about ‘Project Daisy,’ Beats’ secret project that, in some form or another, seems to involve music discovery.
No one’s quite sure what Project Daisy actually is, but Cook seems interested in it. It could be a music discovery engine, à la The Echo Next. It could be a streaming service like Rhapsody or Spotify. No one except Iovine and Cook know for sure.
The story about Apple and Beats’ CEOs meeting made me wonder. Apple has been a major player in the digital music business for 12 years now… yet they have never once delivered a pair of premium headphones the likes of which Beats has become known for. Why not?
Not everyone is convinced that Apple’s iWatch would be a success, and you can add Swatch’s CEO, Nick Hayek, to the pile of detractors.
Hayek says that he doesn’t think the iWatch will be a revolutionary device, because your wrist can’t handle a display big enough to interact with. But despite Hayek’s aversion to the iWatch, Apple’s reached out to him over the years for help on materials and watch batteries.
Apple has asked a federal judge to dismiss a consumer lawsuit that alleges the Cupertino company maintains a monopoly on iPhone apps because it does not allow them to be purchased elsewhere, Bloomberg reports. Attorneys who filed the suit back in 2011 also ague that Apple’s 30% cut of developer revenue is increasing the prices of iOS apps.
Everyone’s favorite recalcitrant Scottish blogger, programmer and whisky drinker Matt “Legend” Gemmel has made available these fantastic iPhone 5 wallpapers, ready for your retro-tendo reminiscences.
Matt made the set of five tall-papers (what I somewhat annoyingly just decided to call the iPhone 5’s tall wallpapers) to commemorate his new-found love of Nintendo gaming on the Mac.
Sharp has this morning announced a ¥10.4 billion ($112 million) investment from Samsung that will provide the latter with a 3% stake in the company. It makes Samsung the biggest individual shareholder in the Japanese display maker, and secures its access to Sharp’s LCD panel supplies.
The investment comes at a time when Sharp has been struggling. The company received a $4.4 billion bailout from the banks in October 2012, and its iPad display orders from Apple were recently cut as consumer demand shifted to the smaller iPad mini, which Sharp is not involved with.
Yeah yeah I know. Another damn iPhone tripod mount. And on Kickstarter no less. I hear you: “Come on Sorrel, you handsome beast you1. Can’t you pick something new to write about?”
Well, cynical but smart reader — this one’s different. I promise. And it’ll work with pretty much any camera-phone ever.
I didn’t really want to see what that photo was, anyway.
One of the cool things I loved about Apple’s Mail.app was the way it provided a visual preview of the attached files that came in my email. It was nice to be able to see exactly what was sent along with the email.
Some folks, however, might not dig this feature, and might want to turn it off. Maybe it helps them feel better, or they don’t need the visual preview. For whatever reason, if you’re one of those people, here’s how to turn it off.
Walter Isaacson, the author of the best-selling biography about Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs, will not have to share his notes or testify in an ongoing lawsuit over alleged eBook price fixing between Apple and book publishers.
Lawyers wanted to see Isaacson’s notes from interviews with Jobs in an effort to establish Apple’s agreements with publishers, but Isaacson refused to hand them over, citing a New York law that allows journalists to shield their sources.
It’s understood that iOS cameras are insanely high-quality given their size. The only real knock about them is the fixed lens. Today’s Cult of Mac Deals offer aims to “fix” that – pun totally intended – with this compact lens kit. It includes 3 versatile options that fit snugly over your iOS lens with a tech-friendly magnet – and you can get this kit for only $25!
(Please note: This offer – which includes free shipping – is only available to customers in the United States and Canada.)
According to a new report, Apple executives recently met with a high-profile music industry executive to discuss business economics and the mysterious “Project Daisy.”
Rumors surrounding the iPhone 5S have started to pick up steam in recent weeks, and now a report from overseas claims that Foxconn has started ramping up production for the new device.
Some users of early 2009 iMacs who have upgraded to OS X Snow Leopard or higher are still reporting issues with a kernel issue that seems to be due to the Nvidia GeForce GT 130 graphics card that came with the machine, with nary a response from Apple proper. There’s a thread on Apple’s support discussion pages that is now around a year old that mentions the problem. According to the posters there, there was a faulty kernel extension released in one of the later Snow Leopard updates that can cause graphics glitches and even kernel panics when there’s a heavy load on the video card, like when playing games. Apple has not yet responded in the official forums.
Hot on the heels of a hack over the weekend that compromised Evernote users’ emails, usernames and passwords — and resulted in the company initiating a password reset on all accounts — Evernote’s hurrying through a new two-factor authentication process, which would allow you to authorize your account in a variety of ways, like entering a code you receive by SMS message.
Evernote’s not the only company to roll out two-factor authentication after a breach: Dropbox also introduced two-factor authentication after a hack last year. If Evernote uses Dropbox’s method, it won’t be obligatory, but instead something you turn on optionally in your account. Better safe than sorry.
Any chemical that can dissuade a bear from using your ribs like emory boards is potent stuff, which is why this story of an Apple Store robbery up in Vancouver is so horrifying: three perps busted up a Genius Bar and started indiscriminately spraying people with bear mace.
If you’re an Apple fanboy that reads a lot of tech websites, you may have come across the name Andy Ihnatko before. Andy’s been a hardcore Apple fanboy for years. He’s got a column at the Chicago Sun Times and Macworld, and he’s on a popular Apple podcast almost weekly.
Sadly, Andy’s decided that his love for the iPhone 4S has died. He’s switched to Android. The two of them are happy. But Andy wants you to know why he’s switched to Android, so he’s published a monster story to give you all the details.
Ferrari announced its newest supercar today — the hybrid model ‘LaFerrari’ — along with plans to deepen its partnership with Apple.
The newest Ferrari comes equipped with iPad minis on the passenger seats, but Ferrari says it is in talks with Apple about bringing more in-car entertainment to their supercars.
Cult of Mac’s vote for the best all-around fitness app for the iPhone is Runkeeper, and it just got a fantastic new update that makes your running preferences more customizable than ever, including a brilliant new ‘night color’ mode which makes the display easier on the eyes, even if you are not a night runner.
So, there you are, sitting on the airplane, with your iPad on Airplane Mode. But you’re also on one of those newfangled jets that actually offers internet via Wi-Fi. What’s a jet-setting iOS user to do? Why, turn on Wi-Fi while still remaining in FAA-compliant Airplane Mode, of course.
If you love jailbreaking and all the little tweaks that come with it, then you’re probably very familiar with Cydia. It’s the number one place to go to if you want to find hacks for your iPhone or iPad, but it also kind of sucks at the same time.
Cydia is massively unorganized and slow when there’s a rush to jailbreak. Most people want to blame its creator, Saurik, for its weaknesses, but in a recent discussion on jailbreaking, Saurik admitted those things bug him too, but there’s not much he can do about it.
iPad stands: You really do need one. Some are happy with the Smart Cover, which is fine for typing and movie watching, but not much else. And the really smart folks use the PadPivot, which is still my go-to do-everything stand (I’m using one right now).
But if what you want is a sturdy-looking stand for an iPad, whether in portrait or landscape orientations, and whether its in a case or out, then the Slider looks to be worth a look. It’s handsome, at least.
TC Electronic’s Flashback guitar pedal ($169) is a multitalented piece of gear. Its robust set of delay and loop features make it easy to get lost in hours of guitar playing, but when paired with a Mac or iOS device, it does something no other pedals can do.
Klingg! That’s the sound of a grown man still unable to sever the maternal ties forged early in his life by a smothering mother. Just kidding. It is in fact the sound of my artisanal iPhone ringtones, recorded from the prayer bells of real Tibetan monks. Kidding again! Klingg is actually an iPhone accessory designed by the fictional Star Trek race… [Enough! -Ed].
Klingg is — truly this time — an earbud holder that clamps onto your clothes using magnets.
Shipping times for the new 21.5- and 27-inch iMacs has fallen again for the second time in under a week. You can now expect the popular all-in-one to be dispatched “within 24 hours” if you live in the United States or Canada, which is a huge improvement over the six-week delay that customers were facing just one month ago.