Here’s a sure fire way to spark a riot on Christmas: give your kids Microsoft Surfaces instead of the iPads and MacBook Airs they wanted instead.
Who would be that Grinchy? Microsoft founder Bill Gates, apparently. He gave his two daughters and son Microsoft products for Christmas, instead of the Apple products they asked for.
File under: Rampant Speculation. Apple Maps is pretty bad compared to Google Maps, and they need to get it fixed in a hurry, by either chaining their engineers to their desks, or buying another company with enough talent to fix Scott Forstall’s biggest snafu.
There was a ridiculous rumor last month that Apple might acquire TomTom to fix Maps, and now the web has sprouted another crazy rumor that Apple might acquire a different mapping company to fix Maps: Waze.
I can’t remember the last time I picked up a proper camera and took a photograph; every picture I take these days is on a smartphone. The problem with that is, I usually end up transferring them to my Mac, and then that’s where they stay. Forever. Making good quality prints isn’t as easy as it should be.
Polaroid is hoping to change that. The company has announced that is to open a bunch of new Fotobar stores across the United States that are dedicated to printing your smartphone snaps. You can pop in, upload your pictures, edit them, and then print them.
HTC China president Ray Yam believes the Taiwanese company’s new licensing deal with Apple will allow it to “take broader steps” and create better products this year. The Droid DNA maker recently entered into a 10-year licensing agreement with Apple that covers all current, pending, and future patents, and ended the litigation ongoing between the two companies.
Smartphones and tablets have been the hottest Christmas gifts in recent years, and the 2012 holidays were by far the biggest yet for Android and iOS. A new study from mobile analytics firm Flurry has found that a record-breaking 17.4 million Android and iOS devices were activated on Christmas Day, leading to an equally record-breaking 328 million app downloads.
After redesigning nearly every product under their roof in 2012, Apple’s probably not going to be redesigning the Mac in 2013. There’s still reason to get excited about updated Mac models, though, as Apple’s sure to stuff them with great new hardware features.
If super-fast Internet speeds make your fingers tingle with anticipation, then you’ll be happy to learn that a new report claims Apple will be including a new chipset this year that will bring 802.11ac networking capabilities to the Mac.
Apple’s iBookstore is reportedly heading to Japan this year, finally delivering its popular e-book store to the ever-growing number of Japanese iPad users. The Cupertino company is said to be in the process of negotiating deals with a “handful” of Japanese publishers to supply a local version of their titles at launch.
Topeka Capital Market’s Brian White doesn’t necessarily have a spotless streak of predictions when it comes to Apple, having claimed in 2012 that Apple would reach an average share price of $1,001 by year’s end. He also claimed in January 2012 that Sharp would provide the display for an Apple HDTV in 2012.
In fact, White’s a bit of a crank. So take the following report with a grain of salt: White is now claiming that the iPhone 5S will come in multiple colors, and with multiple display sizes.
A lot of people want both an iPhone and a physical QWERTY keyboard, but they don’t want the extra bulk. Similarly, some people want a physical control pad, but they don’t want to ensconce their device in a massive case to get one.
That’s the genius of the EX Hybrid Controller for iPhone 5. It’s a Bluetooth controller that magnetically attaches to a special shell on the back of your device: flip it one way and it’s a keyboard, flip it another and it’s a gamepad. And when you’re not using it? Another magnetic backplate snaps on top of it to keep it protected and tidy.
The EX Hybrid Controller is on sale now for $49.90.
Source: iPhone 5 Mod
Apple’s retail store in Paris was targeted by armed robbers on New Year’s Eve, who managed to bag an estimated $1.25 million worth of goods. The attack took place at 9 p.m. local time on Monday, around three hours after the store had closed, Paris police confirmed. Although no Apple staff were on the premises, a security guard and a cleaner were in the store.
Do you know your 7,200-times-table by heart? Good, because if you buy the JuiceCane, you’re going to need it.
Why? Because the JuiceCane is a stackable, extendable spare battery which packs 7,200 mAh of power, and can be joined to other JuiceCanes to increase that capacity.
This could be the first ripple of a very big wave: the Commercial Times out of Taiwan is claiming that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (or TSMC) is about to start trial production for Apple’s A6X SoC this quarter.
Why is this a big deal? Apple’s arch-nemesis Samsung currently manufacturers the A6X chip… and it might herald Apple shifting all of its multi-billion dollar chip business away.
Samsung’s request to keep some of its sales data sealed in an ongoing patent dispute with Apple in the United States has been denied by District Judge Lucy Koh. The Korean electronics giant wanted to keep its figures secret while it appeals an earlier sealing order, but it will now have to disclose the information to Apple.
It seems like just last week that I was raving about Unbound – and that’s because it was. However, there is now yet another amazing app for browsing the photos in your Dropbox.
It’s called Heliog, and it is the equal of Unbound – although it takes quite a different approach.
One frustrating aspect of Boot Camp is that it doesn’t support hard drives larger than 2.2TB. That means that if you custom install a larger hard drive, or order a new iMac with a 3TB hard drive, you won’t be able to use all of that space to run Windows. Luckily, there’s now a partial fix, thanks to the developer of Winclone.
Loving the new look of iTunes 11, but wondering where some of the features you relied on are? Well, if you’re looking for Podcasts or Radio, the fix is fairly easy. Here’s how.
Remember Canabalt? It’s the game that kickstarted the endless runner craze, and it’s been a big hit on iOS, receiving heaps of praise from gamers and critics. Its developer has been working on a new iOS game called Hundreds, which is said to be a minimalist yet challenging puzzler that’s set to hit the App Store at midnight tonight. Check out the teaser trailer below.
Apple has posted a brand new iPhone 5 ad to YouTube called “Dream.” Featuring tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, it humorously promotes the Do Not Disturb feature that Apple introduced with iOS 6. However, Apple could have picked a better time to publish it. The clip comes a day after iPhones switched over to 2013 and the Do Not Disturb feature stopped working properly.
If you had to get up early on January 1st, I hope you used the built-in Clock app to set your iOS alarm; otherwise you may have spent an unintentional extra few hours in bed. Why? Because the Do Not Disturb feature of iOS 6 switched on as usual on the last day of 2012, and then stayed on.
Many users of Do Not Disturb report that the feature didn’t switch itself off yesterday morning.
It seems like the iPhone 5 just barely came out, but Apple is hard at work on the iPhone 6 – or iPhone 5S if that’s what they’re gonna call it. Starting the new year off, developers have already seen evidence that Apple is testing the next generation iPhone and iOS 7.
A new year is upon us, and with that comes a time to refresh and renew your Mac. Cult of Mac Deals has a stellar offer to kick off the new year – one that will give you 4 powerful apps that will make your Mac faster, smarter, and stronger. And all for just $25!
2012 was a great year for Apple, and one of the most exciting for them in years. This year brought not only a myriad of new products, like the iPad mini and iPhone 5, but innovative software and services as well such as OS X Mountain Lion and iOS 6.
As 2012 comes to a close, let’s take a look back at Apple’s accomplishments for the year. If you’d like, you can also take a look back at 2011’s year in review here.
Apple was on fire in 2012. Along with the incredible iPhone 5, we saw the first retina tablet and the pocketable iPad mini. This was also the year in which Apple let the iPod touch out to play, giving it features on a par with the iPhone 4S instead of using leftover components from Google’s leftover Nexus parts bin.
But not everything from Apple made it into our top ten. The Retina MacBook Pro, despite being an amazing machine, is still a laptop, albeit one with a hi-res screen and no DVD player. And the new iMac’s most interesting contribution to tech is the HDD/SSD Fusion Drive. Sure, it’s skinny, but who really cares about a thin desktop machine? It’s like making the world’s thinnest lawnmower.
Most of the rest of my picks reflect the fact that high-tech consumer electronics are now as utterly mainstream as the iron or the microwave oven. Sure, us nerds still love to play with the latest crap, and there will always be plenty of ill-informed consumers who are suckered into buying cheapo Android tablets, but these days gadgets generally Just Work, and the differences are in the little details.
That’s why we have fitness widgets alongside fancy portable speakers and implausibly good-for-the-price headphones.
So, should you be in the mood to read yet another end-of-year best-of list, carry on.
Looking to design an app that gets the attention of those shopping in the iTunes Store? Today’s Cult of Mac Deals offer consists of a free video tutorial that explains important aspects of design – aspectx that propel apps ahead of the competition.
Apple has always been against the stylus and touch-based devices that require one for input. Its iOS operating system was designed specifically for fingers — not pens, and Steve Jobs once said “if you see a stylus, they blew it.” But that hasn’t stopped the Cupertino company from working on one of its own.
A new patent application published by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office last week shows Apple’s work on an “Active Stylus,” a revolutionary new multifunctional stylus that’s designed to overcome the common problems with existing solutions.