Petition To Keep Sparrow Email App Alive Pops Up On Change.org

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As you’ve likely heard, Google recently acquired Sparrow, the popular email app for both the Mac and iPhone. Along with the acquisition, Google made it clear that no further updates or changes would be pushed to the Mac and iPhone, and that the Sparrow team will be merging with the Gmail team.

People never like change, though, and the Google-Sparrow acquisition is no exception. Within just days of the announcement, a petition to keep Sparrow alive has popped up on the web.

Use This Mac App To Print From Your iPhone or iPad Without AirPrint [iOS Tips]

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Printopia 2

When worlds collide – this is ostensibly an iOS tip, but it involves a Mac App, which should technically be an OS X tip, but hey – you probably know how to print from your Mac. It’s more likely that, like me, you have a printer that you use with your Mac and it isn’t one of them newfangled fancy AirPrint ones, neither. While AirPrint protocol has been around since iOS 4, I still haven’t bought a printer with it built in. Hey, mine works just fine, still!

If so, you can print from your iPhone or iPad to the printer connected to your Mac, using Printopia 2, a $20 Mac utility available from developer eCamm.

This Single Image Sums Up The Apple vs Samsung Legal Debacle

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The entire legal battle between Samsung and Apple is just crazy enough to make your head spin if you even care. One day Apple’s got Samsung’s new Android phone banned in the US. The next, they have to issue a statement that Samsung didn’t copy them.

The whole episode is kind of silly, but Apple has a very strong argument that Samsung’s smartphone lineup is just a rip-off of the iPhone. Case-in-point, the image above was made by All Things D’s John Paczkowski to show Apple’s main argument in the legal battle: Before the iPhone Samsung phones had variety and looked nothing like the iPhone. After the iPhone they all look just like the iPhone.

Image: John Paczkowski

Via: Gizmodo

Are iPads Really Cannibalizing Mac Sales? [Let’s Talk]

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Apple’s earnings call is set for 2pm PST today, where Tim Cook and the gang will talk all about sales figures for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Even though the Mac has enjoyed great sales numbers over the past few years while all other PC makers are experiencing a decline, the Mac isn’t growing as steadily as it once had. Is the iPad to blame?

What have you noticed among you and your friends? Are you considering abandoning the Mac altogether in favor of the convenience of the iPad? We want to hear from you on whether you think the iPad is already replacing desktop computers for novice PC users.

CLICK HERE TO TELL US WHAT YOU THINK IN OUR FORUM THREAD

Radio Shack Offering iPhone 4 And 4S Models For Up To $100 Off [Deals]

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Radio Shack is now offering multiple iPhone models on AT&T and Verizon for significant discounts in its retail stores. These iPhones have been “refreshed and remanufactured,” meaning that they have been either used or repackaged internally. You can get a 16GB iPhone 4S on AT&T or Verizon for $100 off Apple’s $200 retail price, and there’s also a $100 discount for the 32Gb iPhone 4S. The iPhone 4 is also being offered for free on both carriers. All discounted models obviously come with a two-year contract.

Here’s the unit/price breakdown:

The Lowepro Flipside Protects Your DSLR While You Search The Forests For Bigfoot [Review]

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flipside sport 15L
Because Bigfoot isn't going to photograph himself: Lowepro's Flipside Sport 15L

Few camera bags are built keep your camera gear safe while you hike, bike, and conquer the wilderness like the manly man that you are. But the Flipside Sport 15L All-Weather camera bag from Lowepro ($135) was designed to do exactly that, and comes standard with some tricks you won’t find on your everyday camera sack.

Dissection App Lets You Cut Up Virtual Dead Bodies

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Budding serial killers can now practice their craft without harming innocent household pets.

 

“Welcome to the ultimate virtual cadaver dissection experience!” So begins the pitch on McGraw-Hill’s Anatomy & Physiology REVEALED app for the iPad, a teaching app which overlays photos of real dead people onto rendered models of the underlying gristle.

EA Set To Permanently Remove Rock Band From iOS At The End Of July

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If you’ve been debating for the past two years whether or not you should finally commit $4.99 to purchasing Rock Band for iOS, the time to act is now my friend, because soon, your beloved guitar shredding game will be gone from the App Store in all its hair metal glory. Due to an expired license agreement with developer Harmonix, EA has notified users that Rock Band for iOS will be removed from the App Store on July 31st.

How To Deploy Mountain Lion In Business And Education The Right Way [Feature]

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Deploying Mountain Lion across dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of Mac can be easy and efficient if you do it the right way.
Deploying Mountain Lion across dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of Mac can be easy and efficient if you do it the right way.

Among Mountain Lion’s more than 200 new features are many that have distinct appeal for business users. AirPlay Mirroring, the ability to share items with colleagues, secure and unified messaging across Macs and iOS devices, one-step encryption of hard drives and flash drives, Reminders, Notification Center, VIP prioritization in Mail, and dictation are just handful of the Mountain Lion features that are poised to become great business and education tools.

With so many great features, IT departments big and small are likely to hear requests for Mountain Lion from employees, managers, educators, and even students. While Mountain Lion may be an easy and painless upgrade for consumers, any major OS upgrade poses challenges and concerns for technology professionals and Mountain Lion is no different. In this guide, we’ll show you how to prepare for Mountain Lion, test it for compatibility issues, and plan a successful roll out.

Astro Time Lapse Camera Controller Is All Knobs And Dials [Kickstarter]

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Easy-peasy: Astro.

 

 

I might bang on a bit about manual knobs and dials, but sometimes they are the perfect and simple solution to a complex problem. Who wants to dig around in menus when you can just twist a ring and get immediate feedback on the result?

So it is with the Astro, a tripod-top time-lapse controller with all-manual – and all-awesome – controls.

New Siri Ad Has A Hidden Easter Egg From Scorsese’s Film Taxi Driver

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Apple debuted a new ad for Siri last night starring famed director Martin Scorsese. The ad is basically just Scorsese riding around in a New York City cab talking to Siri about appointments, finding friends, and traffic. Not too exciting. But if you look closely, you may have noticed an easter egg in the film pointing back to Scorsese’s early days of film making.

The number of the taxi Scorcese is riding in is “3S96,” which is the same taxi Robert De Niro’s character drove in Scorsese’s film Taxi Driver. We’re not sure if his appointments were references to any of his other films, but if you spot any other Easter Eggs in the ad let us know in the comments.

Image: Reddit

Apple Getting Cozy With Hackers, Attending Black Hat Security Conference For The First Time Ever This Thursday

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Apple will be rubbing elbows with the world's elite hackers and security researchers later this week.
Apple will be rubbing elbows with the world's elite hackers and security researchers later this week.

For a company that has written off trade shows like Macworld, it’s interesting that Apple will be officially attending the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas this Thursday. What’s even more interesting is that the conference is devoted to the hacking and security research community, a demographic Apple has always given little public attention to. Under the post-Steve Jobs reign of Tim Cook, Apple’s head of platform security, Dallas De Atley, will be giving a presentation on key security technologies within iOS.

Verizon and Redbox’s Joint Venture Gives Birth To A Clever Name: Redbox Instant By Verizon

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Okay, so I was being sarcastic about the clever name. Nevertheless, the joint venture announced by Redbox and Verizon back in February has finally given birth to an official name, and that name is Redbox Instant by Verizon. Together, Verizon and Redbox plan on bringing yet another video on-demand streaming and download service to the market. As long as Verizon doesn’t screw it up with pricing, the Redbox kiosk/streaming combo could be a real winner.

Boost Your Changers Charger With A Second Solar Panel

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A Changers panel in action. Photo Charlie Sorrel (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)

 

I spent most of last week riding my loaded-up bike through the north of Spain, and as any self-respecting geek would do, I was carrying gadgets, including a power-hungry iPad 3, and a Changers solar-powered charger. I’m planning a longer post on how this worked out, but right now I’m going to tell you about a new accessory for the Changers charger which should make it even more effective on road trips.

Welcome To The New Cult Of Mac Forums! [Announcement]

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(Editor’s Note: This post has been stickied to the top of the front page. There may be more recent news posts below it.)

As writers at Cult of Mac, we have one of the coolest jobs on the planet. We get to sit at home, in our  underwear, and talk about Apple and new technology all day. It’s an awesome privilege that we truly enjoy, but there’s been something missing on Cult of Mac over the last few years.

We have some amazingly passionate readers that love Apple just as much, or more, than we do. We’re lucky to have readers with great insights on the latest Apple news who are also creative and eager to share. You guys ARE The Cult of Mac, and we haven’t been great at providing a platform for you to gather, interact, and share everything you know and love about Apple. But we’re ready to change all that.

Today, Cult of Mac is proud to announce that we’re launching our new forums and they’re made just for you. A place where Apple fans across the globe can come hangout to meet other Apple fans and share their creative insights into all things Apple.

Myths: Why Flash Photography Is Banned In Art Galleries

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Evil flashes terrify museum guards. Photo Phil Hearing / Flickr
 

 

NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY. You’ve all read that sign, and you have all likely – being good obedient citizens – abided by the wishes of the museum or gallery which posted it. But why is it there? Why can’t you use your camera’s flash to take a photo of a painting or a sculpture? The answer, it seems, is as depressingly wrongheaded as you might suspect.

Black Box Turns iPhone Into Negative And Slide Scanner

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Use your iPhone to turn those old snaps into digital photos.

 

If you have a huge stack of old negatives or slides, your best bet is to send them off to India. Seriously: there are services which will scan all your negs, let you choose which ones you actually want to keep via a web browser and then get the digital files returned to you. Apparently it’s pretty cheap.

Or you could do it yourself, with the iPICS2GO Negative to iPhone Scanner. It’s a black box which uses your iPhone 4/S’s camera to snap photos of your own old film and then feeds them into software to produce the photos

Apple Issues Final Reminder For iWork.com Closedown

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Just 7 days left to rescue your iWork.com documents.
Just 7 days left to rescue your iWork.com documents.

Apple has issued iWork.com users with a final reminder to warn them that the service will be closed down on July 31. The company states that as of this date, “you will no longer be able to access your documents on the iWork.com public beta site or view them on the web.”

Two Free Ways To Make Your PDF Files Editable [OS X Tips]

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Great options for free PDF document conversion.
Great options for free PDF document conversion.

PDF files are pretty much just pictures of documents. In point of fact, many of them are just that – scanned paper documents that are put into the PDF format, as it’s a fairly common one with free tools on all platforms. But what if you want to edit those PDF files? Or save them in a format that makes them easier to manage, like .doc or .docx files? There are many expensive options, like the fantastic Abbyy Fine Reader Express, available in the Mac App Store, but there are also two free, relatively painless ways to do this as well. Here’s how.

MineKart 64 Promises Minecraft Meets Mario Kart, But It’s A Complete Scam

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Don't be fooled into purchasing this scam.
Don't be fooled into purchasing this scam.

The App Store has had its fair share of apps and games that attempt to replicate a hit title that isn’t available on iOS — like the numerous Super Mario clones we’ve seen over the years. But MineKart 64 is a little different. It takes not just one, but two hit titles — Minecraft and Mario Kart — and fuses them together.

It’s literally Minecraft kart racing — what could be more enjoyable than that?

Only it’s not that at all. It’s actually a complete scam that you should avoid at all costs.