Cult of Mac

Back in August, Google-owned Motorola Mobility sued Apple for violating 7 of its software patents. Motorola accused Apple of infringing on patents relating to everything from location-based reminders to email notifications.

Now The International Trade Commission (ITC) has thrown out Motorola’s claim that the iPhone violates a patent on “a sensor that prevents accidental hang-ups,” according to Bloomberg. Motorola’s proximity sensor patent has been deemed invalid by the ITC for the second time, and it looks like Motorola won’t have much luck at appealing the decision.

Penny Arcade The Game: Gamers vs. Evil is a deck-building card game published by Cryptozoic Entertainment. Today, the company announced that a stand alone iOS game app based on the deck-building game becomes available tomorrow, December 19. It features characters from the Penny Arcade comic, including Gabe and Tycho, and will launch at a $4.99 price point. The iOS game was developed by PlayDek Games.

Instagram recently updated its Terms of Service (TOS), and everyone freaked out at a clause that said a “business may pay Instagram to display your photos in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions without any compensation to you.” INSTAGRAM CAN SELL MY PHOTOS WITHOUT MY PERMISSION?!? Quick, everyone move to Flickr!!!

As with most news involving social network privacy, it has all been blown way out of proportion. No, Instagram does not want to sell your precious pics you take on your iPhone.

Today Apple seeded a new beta of OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.3 to developers in the Mac Dev Center. The build number is “12D43” and the release contains no known issues.

This is the third 10.8.3 beta to be released after the original was seeded back in November. It was previously discovered that OS X 10.8.3 hints at the faster AMD Radeon 7000 chip making its way to the rumored Mac Pro refresh in 2013.

Apple released OS X 10.8.2 to the public back in September with Facebook integration, Game Center, and some other new features. This third 10.8.3 beta comes out just before Apple shuts down iTunes Connect for the holidays this Friday.

We all know how the annoying experience of tapping a link to an App Store app on the iPhone. You’re immediately thrown out of whatever app you’re in and forced to view the app’s full page in the App Store. Thankfully, that cumbersome experience no longer exists for app ads in the official Facebook iOS app.

When a developer pays to show an ad for their iOS app in your Facebook feed, you’ll now be able to open and install said app without ever leaving Facebook. This is the first time we’ve seen the ability for users to download an App Store app from a pop-up window.

You probably love the hell out of your iPhone. You take it everywhere. Give it constant attention. Make sure it’s clothed in the coolest covers so it doesn’t get banged up and have to go to the Genius Bar emergency room. Heck, you probably even sleep with the little guy.

Sadly, your iPhone doesn’t love you. But a new app called Hatch wants to change all that by turning your iPhone into a pet that loves you back. Hatch is a new iOS game that hatches cute little pets called Fugus inside your iPhone. You can feed your Fugu, clean up after it, pet it, play with it, and tons of other activities to shower it with love. Your Fugu will love you right back. It’s kind of like the Tamagotchi craze, but better.

Here’s a video of the app in action:

When we see companies shamelessly ripping off Apple’s brand, designs and trademarks, we usually think of any number of tiny Chinese knock-off makers (or Samsung).

Now, though, the Brazilians appear to be getting in on the action, as a Brazil-based electronics maker is now planning on launching a new line of Android smartphones that they are calling IPHONES. Yes, really.

Apps are a great gift to that person on your holiday shopping list that already has an iOS device. You used to be able to do this from in the App Store, but that was taken away as of iOS 6. iTunes gift cards were the only way to go.

Now, however, the option to send apps as gifts is back, along with a way to schedule the gifting email so you can better target a birthday or, say, winter holiday that might be coming up. Hint, hint.

Here’s how.

In my line of work, I see a lot of plastic-y, rubbery, or other kinds of cheaply-made iPhone cases. So when I saw Crimson’s new iPhone 5 case ($45), looking all svelte and made from the same aluminum they bolt into Boeing planes, I just had to see if it was truly first class, or just another case made for coach.

We’ve been waiting for Apple to release iOS 6.1 for a few weeks now, but before they bring out the good stuff, Apple is pushing out a small iOS update for iPhone 5s and the iPad mini.

iOS 6.0.2 is available for download now through iTunes or via over the air updates, but it looks like it’s only for the iPad Mini and iPhone 5. All other iOS devices will have to wait for an update.  According to Apple the update fixes a bug that could impact WiFi. We’ll let you know if there are any major changes inside once we get it on our devices.

Here are the individual download links:

The Omni Group has been testing its new OmniFocus Mail Drop, a service which lets you forward emails to a secret address, whereupon they end up — moments later — in your OmniFocus inbox. This means that we can finally (finally!) add emails direct to our Omnifocus from our iPhones and iPads.

But with a little jiggery-pokery, you can finagle some automated internet services to do much more. In this post I’ll show you how I now collect news items from Google Reader and have them waiting for me in Omnifocus and Writing Kit, ready to be written up.

What I am about to share with you will likely blow your mind. It will change your perspective on the world forever, and give you a new understanding of the word “convergence.” Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the Lens Strap, a device which hovers uncertainly in the quantum foam between iPhoneography accessories and collars for poodles from Beverly Hills.

I warned you.

One of the better Yuletide traditions is the venerable holiday Advent Calendar, in which each day of December leading up to Christmas is marked off on a special calendar by opening its corresponding door to find a small gift, toy or chocolate squirreled away inside.

This year, we here at Cult of Mac decided we wanted to give our readers their very own Apple-themed advent calendar, filled with the year’s best apps, gadgets, stories and other curios. So each day in December, we’re going to lovingly peel back the door on the Cult of Mac 2012 Advent Calendar to reveal another delicious morsel, something really special that came out this year that we think every one of you should enjoy.

On day 18 we’re kicking out the jams with the Libratone Zipp.

Despite ailing on Wall Street and criticized by analysts for somehow being “disappointing,” Apple’s iPhone 5 launch is the biggest one for the company yet. How big? Not even getting into units sold, the iPhone 5 has been responsible for an influx of about $75 billion into the U.S. economy in 2012… and that’s not even taking into account the rest of the world.

Not impressed yet? iPhone 5 sales could move the entire $15 trillion GDP of the United States up by half a percent.

Crazy, huh? This and other interesting facts in tech are part of Mobile Future’s 2012 Mobile Year In Review. Well worth a watch. The future’s just starting.

Filling Steve Jobs’ shoes is not an easy task, but Tim Cook has done an incredible job leading Apple in 2012. There were some big bumps in the road but Tim navigated past them with great poise and as a result he’s one of eight frontrunners to be named TIME’s Person of the Year.

Since 1927, Time magazine has given out the Person of the Year award to the person that most influenced the world – whether for good or evil. Steve Jobs was nominated a few times but never received the award.

Along with Tim Cook, the list of eight nominees includes the following people:

Music streaming service Rhapsody has finally made itself available on your iPad with a brand new app that promises to deliver “a visually stunning and immersive experience for the music lover!” It brings more than 16 million songs to your tablet, with support for offline playlists, AirPlay, and unlimited downloads. What’s more, it offers a 30-day free trial for those who aren’t already signed up.

I’ve been a fan of Wunderlist for a long time. When it comes to task managers, it has just always been one of the best. Today it has been taken to the next level. In version 2, Wunderlist has been redesigned and rebuilt into a native application on all devices. The app is faster with more features, a web version, and a social experience that makes sharing and collaborating on lists feel smooth as butter.

6Wunderkinder, the Berlin-based company behind Wunderlist, recently canned another app called Wunderkit. The collaborative, team-focused backbone of Wunderkit has been infused into Wunderlist 2. Whether you want to get things done by yourself or with the help of others, Wunderlist 2 is an excellent task manager for all of your devices.

Keeping up with your popularity  in the digital age is exhausting. You have to switch to Instagram to see if people think you’re artsy. Then open to Twitter to see if anyone’s retweeted your joke from an hour ago. And then you gotta make sure people are reading your blog so you open up Google Analytics.

Once you’ve finally made the loop through all the apps you’re ready to start over again, but a new app called Static for iOS is ready to make all that stat checking a whole lot easier for you by giving you all your social networking stats on one easy to read screen.

Scannner Mini is a new iOS scanning app from Readdle, and it has one big feature: it’s free. Scanner Mini is a no-cost version of Readdle’s excellent Scanner Pro app, giving you everything it’s big brother has, minus the document sharing.

Viber, the popular cross-platform mobile communications service, has today announced that it has now surpassed more than 140 million users across six platforms, with 400,000 people joining the service each and every day. To celebrate the milestone, the company has introduced a number of new features to its Android and iOS apps, including the ability to send “fun stickers” and “playful emoticons,” and support for the iPhone 5’s larger display.

Remember the amazing Popsicolor? Of course you do (and if you don’t, go check it out). It’s the app that turns your photos into colorful watercolors that actually look like real watercolors, not terrible 1990s-era Photoshop-plugin-style watercolors.

It’s about to get a rather splendid 2.0 update, and the teaser video is above.

Looking to pick up some last-minute Christmas gifts this week? If you’re buying from the Apple online store, you can get them delivered the very next day and it won’t cost you a penny extra. The Cupertino company is now offering free next-day shipping on everything — if you live in the United States, that is.

The iPhone and iPad are the perpetual accessories of today’s office warrior, yet even so, the pickings are slim for the professional who wants an app suite capable of reading and writing Microsoft Office documents on the go.

Luckily, that’s all changed. Polaris Office is here, and it’s not just Microsoft Office on your iPhone or iPad: it’s better.

Here’s how you start an e-mail pitch:

In your last post about the Braven 570, I loved how you said that someday you might stop writing about candy bar shaped speakers. Well, today is the day for a Bluetooth speaker that shaped like, well, paper.

That speaker is the CoverPlay Mojo, a skinny speaker that will snuggle into your luggage between your shirts, instead of needing to be jammed inside a shoe like all its stupid, oafish rivals.

A free SpongeBob Squarepants game from Nickelodeon has had to be pulled from the App Store following complaints that it violates children’s online privacy rights. SpongeBob Diner Dash asked children for their names and email addresses without parental permission — so that it could fill their inboxes with spam, no doubt — causing an advocacy group to report the app to the Federal Trade Commission.