Oh man. I’m trying so hard not to buy an iPad Mini, and this new Skech case isn;t helping any. It’s a variation on one of my favorite iPad cases ever, and now it has been made tinier and cuter.
It’s called the SkechBook, and it looks good enough to make me buy a new iPad.
On our newest CultCast, we reunite with Chis Foresman of Ars Technica, and with no new Apple hardware to wax on and on about, we were forced to come up with real, actual show content!
But we work well under pressure, so this week we cover some of our favorite and most useful productivity apps; tell you if you can ever expect to see Google’s answer to Apple Maps released to the App Store; and did you know Samsung’s about to change their logo to a pear with a bite taken out of it? Kidding! But rumor is they’re about to rebrand in a major, more “Apple-like” way…
All that and our thoughts on Microsoft SmartGlass, the app that let’s you control your Xbox with your iPhone! Subscribe now on iTunes, or easily stream new and previous episodes via Apple’s free Podcasts App. And please note, if episode 42 isn’t yet showing up for you, subscribing will fix that problem right quick.
Apple has released a software update that’s recommended for all MacBook Airs and MacBook Pros released in June 2012 — including the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro. In addition to graphics performance and reliability enhancements, the update promises to improve compatibility with some USB devices.
The iPhone is fast becoming one of the most – if not the most – used cameras on the planet. But serious photographers know that nothing really beats a DSLR in terms of quality – and any serious hobbyist knows that as well. So if you’re looking to get some superior shooting, then learning how to use a DSLR camera is a must. And for those who already have a DSLR camera, I’m betting that you’r probably not using it to its full potential.
You’re not alone…I’m in the same boat. That’s why this latest Cult of Mac Deals offer is so huge. You’ll get two online courses that will help you achieve DSLR mastery and take your digital photography skills to new heights – and all for just $39!
A coalition of higher education IT folks petitioned Apple last August to make Bonjour, AirPlay, and AirPrint work better on large campus networks. The petition currently has 750 signatures, which may have helped Apple take notice.
This week, the Cupertino-based tech company responded to the petition by proposing a new industry standard that will fix issues with its “zero-configuration” networking technology–Bonjour–to let it scale better and be more secure across larger networks. At an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) meeting in Atlanta, Apple and other vendors, including IBM, claimed support for the creation of a new working group to improve the current networking protocols, of which Bonjour is one.
After being bombarded with requests, Pinterest is finally going to allow users to create private boards. Pinterest is calling them “Secret Boards” and rolling them out in hopes that users will use them to create their holiday shopping lists. I’d call that wishful thinking, since we all know what those “Secret Boards” are really going to be used for.
The developers at Pangalore have released a new game for iOS and Facebook that combines an action RPG with a city building sim. The hybrid game is free to download and play on iOS, and it connects with the Facebook game of the same name.
It’s good looking, plays well, and scratches that free-to-play city building/simulation itch we all seem to have these days. You can build your own fantasy medieval kindgom, cultivate crops, craft items and engage in quests. You can play via your web browser on your Mac via Facebook, and then on your iPad 2 or newer, including the iPad mini, iPhone 4 or newer, or iPod touch 4th Generation device. It’ll be coming to Android soon, as well.
You only have to use Facebook if you want to be able to play on the web; there are Game Center and single player options as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3fd3ZLEYUvI
If you’re an iDevice power-user and need a classically robust bag to haul all your junk, take note: Timbuk2 has just released the Power Series, two alternate versions of their best-selling Commute Laptop Messenger and Q Laptop Backpack, equipped with Joey batteries and special a pass-through for the charging cable.
Following its change in policy regarding FaceTime over cellular, AT&T has announced a new holiday promotion for tablets, including the iPad. Beginning this Friday, November 9th, AT&T will discount any tablet by $100 with the purchase of a two-year Mobile Share or tiered data plan.
Any tablet purchased at an AT&T retail location or through the carrier’s online store will receive the discount if a two-year plan is also purchased.
Chances are you’ve heard of a game that’s like Words with Friends mixed with Scrabble and SpellTower. It has been taking Game Center by storm, and it’s called Letterpress.
Developed by Tweetie’s Loren Brichter, Letterpress is good, simple fun. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be tricky. Unless you’re a wordsmith and decent strategist, it can be difficult to efficiently use all of the letters on the game’s board to your advantage.
Here’s how to master (and yes, even cheat at) Letterpress:
Borderlands 2, one of the most anticipated games to hit consoles and the PC this year is now coming to the Mac. The fact that it’ll be available for download two months after the game saw its main release speaks volumes about the attention the Mac gaming market is beginning to get. More importantly though, it means Mac gamers can get ready to blast their pants off this holiday season.
Back in August, Square partnered with Starbucks to bring mobile payments to the coffee giant’s thousands of stores nationwide. Starbucks said that Square would be integrated into 7,000 of its stores across the U.S. by early November, and now the time has come.
Square has the ability to open a virtual tab with a merchant so you don’t have to scan your iPhone at the register, but Starbucks isn’t adopting this functionality. You’ll have to scan your iPhone after you order, like Passbook.
AT&T received a lot of negative attention in the press when it announced that it would restrict the use of FaceTime over cellular on Apple devices running iOS 6. Instead of letting anyone use the video chat feature no matter the device or data plan, AT&T decided to keep FaceTime limited to customers with new Mobile Share plans. This meant that traditional data plan customers, including those with grandfathered unlimited data, were out of luck.
Today AT&T announced a change to its FaceTime over cellular policy, and things are looking better for iPhone 5 and LTE iPad owners on tiered data plans.
Now, I love me some Siri, but even I have to admit that the personal voice assistant isn’t always super fast or super accurate. Last night, when I asked it when the new iMac would ship, it said, “I don’t know that that means. If you like, I can search the web for ‘When does the new iMac ship’.” Today, it directs me to “Apple’s rather fabulous website.”
When I asked Google search the same question? I got a ton of responses, including a link to an Amazon.com question And Answer: When will the new imacs ship…”
Google search also seems a LOT faster in recognizing and interpreting what I mean when I speak to it, and it works on non-Siri capable iOS devices. Apple’s got some competition here.
After a long hard fought year, Apple plans to let employees take some extra time off for Thanksgiving, and just like last year, they plan to close iTunes Connect for a week during Christmas, meaning developers won’t be able to push out app updates from December 21st till December 28th.
Apple sent an email to developers earlier today confirming that iTunes Connect will be closed for the holidays. iTunes Connect is the developer portal used to manage applications to sell in the App Store, meaning developers won’t be able to submit new apps or app updates during that time.
If you’re a fan of productivity apps then you’re probably familiar with Evernote and its amazing features. Not only does Evernote have a host of great productivity features, but the dedicated developer team behind it is always churning out new updates.
In the biggest update to Evernote in years, Evernote 5.0 is a complete redesign of the app’s UI. The main goal of the redesign was to make all major functions in the app accessible within two taps. Along with the new interface, a number of features have been added to Evernote 5.0.
Here’s the release notes on all the new goodies:
Thanks to our friends over at Digiarty, Cult of Mac Deals is able to hook you up with a Mac app that allows those of you who are still ripping DVDs – say for backing up data or preparing home movies for the grandparents – to rip DVD to video/audio formats on Mac OS.
With MacX DVD Ripper Pro, you can back up DVDs in multiple formats to ensure you don’t lose precious memories or costly software, and you can even rip encrypted DVD to a slew of iOS devices in minutes without compromising quality!
And the best part is that you can get this Cult of Mac Deals offer for free!
We’re starting to hear reports that people who preordered the iPad Mini with Wi-Fi + Cellular are having their shipping notifications updated, alerting them of a November 21 November 16 delivery date, with shipping to start in the next five business days.
The Apple Store official preorder page still says that the iPad mini Wi-Fi + Cellular will become available for shipping in mid-November, so these reports would seem to line up with Apple’s own promises on the matter. We’ll let you know when we hear more.
Update: Some of our readers are reporting delivery dates starting next Friday, the 16th:
If true, this would line up with our prediction that iTunes 11 will ship by the 16th. The iPad mini currently does not report as anything besides a regular iPad when plugged into iTunes, which isn’t very Apple-like: it makes sense that a new version of iTunes directly supporting the iPad mini would ship soon.
Thanks: MacGeek4Life
The little Jambox speaker isn’t the loudest, or even the best-sounding portable speaker out there, but somehow it is the most popular, and it’s probably the most portable. And it’s certainly the most cute.
I have one and I love it. Sometimes, though, you just need more. And that’s the idea of the Big Jambox, the best-named product of the year. Is it just a bigger version of its little brother? Kinda, but not quite.
We were a bit disappointed when Apple made the iPod Nano larger this year. The watch-like form factor of the iPod Nano was perfect for a lot of people and we were really hoping Apple would eventually make a iWatch that will rival the Pebble.
Federico Ciccarese has come up with a revolutionary concept called the iSiri Smartwatch. The watch would control everything on you iPhone and give you feedback right from your wrist, which might be an ingenious idea, or add an unnessecary level of interaction with our devices.
Check out the video of the iSiri Smartwatch in action below and tell us what you think of the idea in the comments.
It’s been a couple of months since Apple released Lightning, and in two months, Apple has refreshed every iDevice that uses the old 30-Pin Dock Connector short of the iPod Classic. Despite this aggressive move to ditch the connector of the past, though, there has yet to be a single third-party accessory that supports Lightning.
Why? Because third-parties need to go through Apple for MFi (or Made for iPhone/iPad/iPod) certification, and the guidelines for getting that certification didn’t get announced until very recently at a secret meeting between Apple and accessory-makers in Shenzhen, China.
What’s going on at that meeting? According to a new intriguing report, Apple is making any accessory-maker who signs on for MFi certification to embrace their own supplier code, which should force accessory makers to manufacture their devices a lot more ethically.
Questions is a video ask-and-answer community for iOS. A bit like a video version of Quora – although where Quora encourages thoughtful discourse and discussion, Questions is all about brevity and snappiness. You only get 10 seconds to ask a question or submit an answer.
We’ve seen a number of Apple fans come up with clever docks for the iPhone by using packaging materials Apple ships products with. Taking a cue from their customers’ resourcefulness, Apple has a new patent that shows iPhone packaging that can also double as a dock after it’s been opened.
I have a feeling that there are going to be many, many misguided attempts at making iPad Mini cases. Exhibit A: The Rubata Mini case from Padacs, a cheap and extraordinarily ugly keyboard case which turns the little iPad into a tiny laptop.
Where am I going with this? One word: netbooks.
Last month, Apple failed to make its own self-imposed deadline to release iTunes 11 by the end of October.
iTunes 11 is a radical overhaul of Apple’s media management, shopping and syncing software for the Mac and PC that seemingly addresses the numerous complaints of bloat and convolutedness that have been leveled at the app over the years. It also has a much more attractive and modern design.
Consequently, numerous Apple fans — including ourselves — were disappointed when Cupertino quietly announced they were pushing back iTunes 11’s release by a month, into November. But when in November?
We have no inside information on when, exactly, iTunes 11 will be released, but we think there’s an excellent chance that it will be released by no later than the end of next week, and most likely next Wednesday. Here’s why.