Cult of Mac

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has been one of the most outspoken proponents of the idea that Apple will release their own television, having predicted it for at least the last years every three or four months Now he’s at it again, promising a sub-$2000 Apple HDTV before the end of 2013. That’s not the weirdest thing he’s predicting though: a retina iPad mini by March, and a third-gen by September 2013.

Finally, a bag which will suit the every need of our esteemed deputy editor John Brownlee. The Brixton is a leather camera bag with a wax finish that will only become more beautiful as it is used, and used it will be, as Mr. Brownlee has an unnatural obsession with natural materials.

Take two gadgets into the shower? A spray-head and a Bluetooth speaker? Not me; I just want to shower, and listen, and go.

Yes, I’m fully aware that I just butchered my parody of the old Wash & Go ads, but it was for a very good cause. You see, the Moxie from Kohler is a shower-head with a built-in Bluetooth speaker. Yup! A shower speaker that is not only waterproof, but water-spurting.

Just over a week ago, Apple and HTC decided to end their patent disputes with a 10-year cross-licensing agreement. The specifics of the agreement were not disclosed, and as with all things that aren’t disclosed, it lead to rampant rumor mongering.

As you open applications on your Mac, you may notice your Dock getting a little crowded. That’s because OS X adds an icon for each running app to your Dock as soon as you launch it, to let you know that it’s actually doing something. It’s one of the many great visual reminders built into the operating system.

Sometimes, though, your Dock might get a little too crowded. In which case, you can do a couple of different things to get rid of the Dock icon while the app in question is running, though it’s not without its downsides.

AirPlay is one of Apple’s killer features in iOS or the Mac. As long as you have an AirPlay-compatible speaker or, better yet, an Apple TV in range, you can automatically stream video or audio to another device, all without pairing first.

Now according to a new report, Google wants to not only launch its own bonafide AirPlay competitor, but one-up AirPlay by offering true second screen capabilities to customers using Android devices with their Google TVs.

As expected, Nokia has unleashed its own maps app for iOS, under the brand name Here. If you’re not Here already, where do you want to be? And can Here take you there?

Move over, Photo Stream. Facebook is horning its way into iOS’s automatic photo syncing turf. The world’s largest social network is starting to roll out a new service to users of the iOS app that will automatically squirt up to 2GB worth of their most recently taken photos to Facebook’s servers.

Disappointed with iOS 6 Maps but sick of waiting Google to finally get its act together and release a native Maps app on the App Store. Good news: another big name in maps, Nokia, have launched their own native maps app for iOS today. Called Nokia HERE, the app leverages Nokia’s decade-long expertise in mapping and brings it to the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, while also offering cool new features like Facebook integration, turn-by-turn directions, the ability to save maps for later, transit directions, and more.

Sometimes you need to have that one tool in your digital toolkit, and it just isn’t there. Sometimes you want to have more to work with, but you just run out of inventory. Sometimes you just don;t have enough of what you need.

This latest Cult of Mac Deals offer will get rid of all of those “sometimes” when it comes to web design, because you’ll get over 300 vectors, icons and more for all of your design needs with The World’s Largest UI Bundle. And you’ll get it for only $69!

There’s another way to get refurbished Apple stuff, and it’s…eBay? Oddly enough, the online auction retail site has a dedicated page for Apple certified Macs, iPods, and iPads, each coming with their own one year warranty just like they do in the onlineApple Store.

All the devices on sale through this eBay page are refurbished to seem like new, and even given new batteries in the case of iOS devices. The original operating system is also installed, and the unit gets a full round of testing, just like it does on the Apple Store.

MacLegion puts together some of the best Mac app bundles around, and this year’s holiday collection is certainly no exception. This may be one of the best bundles we’ve ever seen, in fact. The folks at MacLegion have assembled $540 worth of top-notch Mac software and bundled it together for only $50—that’s more than a 90% discount!

I bought a 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display this summer, and I’m absolutely in love with it. I firmly believe that it’s the best laptop Apple has ever made, and it has totally changed my workflow.

One of the main qualities of the Retina MacBook Pro is its portability. It’s crazy thin. I carry this laptop with me everywhere, and I knew when I bought it that I needed something to help keep it protected.

I’ve been using Mujjo’s wool MacBook sleeve nonstop for the past couple months, and I couldn’t be more pleased.

During a roundtable session at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, world-renowned entrepreneur Elon Musk gave his opinions and impressions on a number of topics. Issues ranging from sustainable energy to planet colonization were bounced off the brain of Mr. Musk. As the man behind multiple $50 billion companies shared his insight, the billion dollar question was asked: “Who will come out on top: Apple, Microsoft, Google, or Facebook?”

Think back to your life 10 years ago. Now think about this: if you would have invested $10,000 in Microsoft stock then, you would now have $13,000. If you would have invested the same amount into Apple, you would now be sitting on $700,000.

Really let that sink in.

Tweetbot from Tapbots has become one of the most popular third-party Twitter clients available for iOS. But those of you with older devices may find that it sometimes has an issue with scrolling. Thankfully, Tapbots pushed out a new update today that should change that.

Apple has posted a teaser page for its annual Black Friday sale on its Australian online store. “The one-day Apple shopping event is Friday, 23 November,” reads the graphic. “We’ll help you make the most of the day, no matter how you shop.”

If you’re a longtime Apple customer, you know that the company’s Black Friday deals are infamously weak. The biggest kind of discount you’ll typically see is $40-$60 off an iPad or $100 off a Mac. Still, it’s the only time of the year that Apple discounts anything, so the deals are worth noting. Nothing specific has leaked out yet about the deals that will be happening this Friday, but expect some modest price cuts on all of the new products Apple introduced over the past few months.

Apple’s online and actual retail store deals should be the same. Don’t expect to stop by your local Apple store in the wee hours of the morning this Friday though, because the majority of stores won’t be opening at abnormally early hours.

Apple’s online shipping estimates for the iPhone 5 are finally starting to look more reasonable. Last week, orders placed through the Apple Store wouldn’t ship for 2-3 weeks, and now Apple is saying that new orders will arrive in 2 weeks time.

The continued decrease in time it takes to ship means that Apple is finally starting to catch up with demand. We may not see a more normal 1-3ish business day shipping estimate until after the holidays, but things are looking better.

At this point, the safest thing to do is reserve an iPhone 5 for pickup at your local Apple Store. Apple still notes that “iPhone 5 is available in limited quantities” on its website.

Via: iPhoneinCanada

Ah, the venerable old Macintosh Portable. First introduced in 1989, the $6,500 wasn’t just a milestone in that it was the first battery-powered portable Mac, but it was also the first laptop ever used to send an email in space.

I’ve always been fond of the cute, suitcase-y design of the Portable Macintosh, so I’m delighted to see that some industrious hacker has given it a new life by gutting it and transplanting the innards of a Toshiba NB100 netbook inside. Some truly advanced soldering later, and you have, for all appearances, a pristine Macintosh Portable that can also run OS X Mountain Lion.

Check out this full video tour…

The iPhone is a paragon of simple design. It packs a ton of complexity in a simple, easy to understand package. One example is the iconic Home button. One click of the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad touch will wake your device, a click and hold will bring up Siri, and a triple click can enable a host of accessibility features.

Did you know, however, that you can set the speed at which the Home button will recognize your clicks? Added in iOS 6, this feature will be a boon to anyone with motor issue or even just those of us who want to slow down the speed at which we double or triple click that Home button.

Despite posting one of their most profitable quarters ever, Apple’s stock (AAPL) has taken a dive over the last two months. It’s been down nearly 25% from it’s recent highs and some analyst have said that the stock is great buy right now.

This morning, Brian White from Topeka claimed that the sell-off in Apple’s stock over the past weeks has been “insanely insane” given how Apple is poised to have a record breaking holiday quarter. Since making his claim, Apple’s price has jumped up 5% today.

Roger Dean is famous for his fantasy world artwork, which graced many a record sleeve and book cover during the 1970s and 80s. His work is iconic and instantly recognisable to a generation.

This app – Dragon’s Dream – is an unfortunate foray into iOS. It fails to do justice to Dean’s skill as an artist, and fails to offer iOS gamers an experience worth five dollars.

Every year Oprah Winfrey makes a list of her favorite things in life and then she gives everyone in her audience free copies of everything on her list. When you got a few billion to burn you can do that. One year Oprah said she just loooooved the iPad. Like, she said the iPad was the greatest thing ever, and middle-aged women across the country wept with joy. Now, she’s saying she’s totally off that and onto the next cool tablet – The Microsoft Surface.

Yesterday, Oprah tweeted: “Gotta say love that SURFACE! Have bought 12 already for Christmas gifts. #FavoriteThings” Thing is, Oprah tweeted about her love for the Surface from her iPad. So you know, I guess you can love an object that you never use. That’s cool. Well played Oprah.

Source: Twitter

A year after Steve Jobs’ passing, the yacht he had been working on with famed French designer Philippe Starck finally made it out to sea. Venus is a beautiful ship that conforms to all of Steve Jobs’ philosophies on minimalist design, and it reveals a lot about Steve Jobs’ design process. that took five years to build.

The entire project took five yeas to complete as Jobs and Starck perfected the design of the yacht millimeter by millimeter. In a recent interview, Philippe Starck explains what it was like to work on designing the yacht with Steve Jobs and what the design says about Jobs’ design process.

There have been a few rumors over the last week or two claiming that Apple’s new ultra-thin iMacs won’t be available in stores until 2013 due to production issues with the display and other components.

Rumors of the delay are probably false though, as a new report claims production is still on track for 2012, but initial supply will be fairly low.