Cult of Mac

Earlier this year Apple acquired Chomp – a startup app-search service – presumably to help it improve app-search in iOS. The move seemed brilliant at the time because finding apps in the iOS App Store was more painful and tedious than hiking through the jungles of the Amazon.

App Store searching has improved a bit with iOS 6, but it’s still not great. We probably wont experience the full fruits of the Chomp acquisition for many more months, but if you look at the picture above, Apple’s already implemented Chomp’s search UI into the App Store. Do you think Apple plans to do more with Chomp and their app-search technology? Let us hear your thoughts in the comments.

Source: Reddit

Gameloft is doing what it does best: teasing its upcoming titles. Next on their list is Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour and they’ve released quite the reveal trailer for us to drool over. Being released for Android and iOS this fall, the next installation in the Modern Combat series looks just as intense as the 3rd and chock full of guns, ammo and bloodshed.

We told you last week about the Humble Indie Bundle, now in its sixth iteration. Today, four new games were added, bringing the total to ten games on offer with a pay-what-you-want model that sends the purchase price along to independent developers, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and Child’s Play, a charity that provides game consoles to children in hospitals.

While Google Maps may no longer be available as either the default iOS map app or as a standalone app of its own, the search giant’s other flagship software has been quietly updated for iPhone 5,iOS 6, and an unspecified number of “Stability and security improvements,” according to the App Store description page for the alternate iOS browser.

Apparently, Apple made the decision to dump Google maps for iOS 6 was made more than a year before the contract with Google for their map system expired, says a new post at The Verge that cites “independent sources familiar with the matter.” Further, the choice may have caused Google to start development on it’s own iOS Google Maps app before it was ready to. These same sources say the potential app won’t be ready for several months.

While you’re waiting for new docks for the iPhone 5 to come on the market, why not make your own? NYC filmmaker Casey Neistat (of iPod “dirty secret” battery fame; remember that?) shows you how. It’s perhaps the ugliest dock ever, but it works!

Don’t miss the video after the jump. Neistat always makes a good movie.

Good news for Instagram addicts: the app has finally been updated for iOS 6 and the iPhone 5’s larger display.

Not only has compatibility been added for Apple’s latest smartphone and mobile OS, but Instagram has also added an improved registration flow and password recovery tool.

It was recently revealed that Verizon sells the iPhone 5 factory unlocked out of the box. Not only can you use the Verizon iPhone 5 on another CDMA carrier, but the device will also work on non-LTE GSM networks, like AT&T. U.S. carriers will typically unlock off-contract iPhones for free, but Verizon is selling the iPhone 5 unlocked with a two-year contract as well.

Buying an iPhone 5 at the full, unsubsidized price on AT&T doesn’t guarantee that it will be unlocked, but AT&T will typically grant unlock requests for customers in good standing. The same goes for AT&T iPhone owners who have fulfilled the life of their two-year contract.

There’s been multiple theories suggested to explain why Verizon is behaving this way, but the real reason is much simpler than you would think.

MacTech Conference 2012 in Los Angeles doesn’t start till October 17th 2012, but pre-registration is ending pretty soon — and with it your chance to save $300. If you’re interested in learning about all things Mac in some world-class sessions by some phenomenally brilliant Apple fans than you need to hurry and register.

MacTech 2012 will features special sessions with people like former Apple evangelist Matt Drance, and a special NASA Jet Propulsion Lan on “Interplanetary Networking, Curiosity Style.” You’ll even get to go over to Walt Disney Animation Studios and get a behind-the-scenes look at the advanced technology Disney uses to make their films.

We all knew this was coming. It was only a matter of time before Hitler found out about Apple’s new iOS 6 Maps. As you may have already guessed, der Führer isn’t all that happy with the new service and is quite irate over the fact that his house is listed as a fountain in Austria.

Watch the hilarity unfold as Hitler is informed that a Google Maps app has yet to be approved and his army is officially all out of 30-pin connectors.

Thieves love iPhones and Apple products. But the theives in New York City? Those dudes have a fiery lustful passion for Apple products. So much so that Apple product theft now accounts for 14 percent of all crime in New York City according to the NYPD. Even though NYC’s crime rate only rose four percent this year compared to 2011, Apple product theft rose a whopping 40 percent.

The iPhone 5 and iOS 6 have brought a new, more powerful Siri into the limelight. We thought it might be time to start looking for ways to best query the spunky digital assistant for a variety of tasks, like checking the weather, for example.

Being able to use your voice to find out the forecast for the next several days is a fantastic feature that more folks might use, if only they knew the right way to ask. While Siri definitely handles natural-language questions with aplomb, you can help her understand your intent better by using the following types of questions.

The iPhone 5 is packed with all sorts of neat new hardware internals that Apple has poured their energy and R&D dollars into. Its camera is ridiculously thin, and the processor has been custom designed and manually layed out for maximum efficiency, but there’s another new hardware feature no one’s talking about.

One secret of the iPhone 5 is that it contains a chip that may have been included just so it will work on the world’s largest mobile carrier – China Mobile – giving Apple access to 700 million new potential customers.

The Wahoo Blue HR ($79) heart rate strap performs a neat trick: by pairing with your iPhone (4S or 5 only) via Bluetooth, it allows you to transform your favorite iOS device into any of the amazing heart rate monitors available on the App Store today. Even better, it works with all the best cycling and running apps too, so now you can monitor your heart and calories on your rides or runs.

iOS 6's Passbook app isn't just for big-business companies to use. Yes, you'll be able to use it to check in to your flights, and to get discounts at your favorite international coffee chain, but now mom and pop stores, your local food cart or even a stall at the local flea market will be able to offer you coupons and membership, using a new free app called People's Card.

Apple’s Find My iPhone feature is great for whenever you lose your iPhone or MacBook, but what about when you lose other stuff, like a wallet, dog, luggage, camera, keys, or anything else? There are a few GPS solutions that you can attach to everything you prize most in life, but that’s kind of costly.

FinderCodes is a new service that is trying to make QR codes actually useful by allowing people to attach one to everything they love so it can be traced back to them through the FinderCodes database. It’s simple, but more elegant than writing your name, address, and phone number on everything.

The iPhone isn’t the only thing that looks more handsome when it gets taller and thinner. Bookbindery cases get better looking too, as you can see with event he quickest glance and Pad&Quill’s new Little Pocket Book. Stretched lengthwise and squashed a little depth-wise, it’s “thinnest we have ever made,” says P&Q honcho Brian Holmes.

Remember when Buster found an iPhone at the bottom of a river while he was floating down it on an inner-tube? The previous owner had the right idea: he sealed it in a plastic bag to keep out the elements. But he forgot one thing: Even in a bag, the short, heavy, ugly iPhone 4 will sink like, well, like last year's crappy iPhone.

What he should have used was Coghlan's Dry Pouch.

Apple’s new Lightning connector is freaking teeny tiny and incredibly awesome. Apple managed to shrink the connector down to just eight contact pins and give it the ability to insert it in either orientation. While some users may have wished for Apple to use micro-USB, the Lightning connector is full of amazing little pieces of tech that make it a lot better than other options.

Rainer Brockerhoff has been doing an autopsy on the Lightning connector all weekend and has discovered some really cool features. For instance, did you know that the Lightning connector has the ability to detect which types of devices it’s connected to and re-assign pin functionalities for each situation?

Oh sure now Apple decides to improve their ear buds! I haven’t tried them, but I’m not convinced. Regardless of the hype around the new Apple earbuds (I’ll have to try the new design, right now my Apple ear buds are purely “backup” when all other options aren’t available), I think it’s worth checking out earbuds from folks who just do earbuds.

We’ve had BodyGaurdz here before, but I think this is the first time we’ve had a pair with a mic—BodyGuardz Moxy Earbuds With Mic—which is a must-have for me. See I don’t want to carry a set of earbuds for music and something else for calls (or worse have to use the iPhone or iPad mic for calls when using earbuds). It’s about having a compact kit, you know?

 If you ever lose your iPhone 5 and have to track it down using iCloud.com’s Find My iPhone web app, you can at least rest assured that you’ll have the best mapping data available to track it down, because iCloud.com is still using Google Maps.

Even though Apple has switched the Find My iPhone iOS app to use Apple Maps, their website is still using Google Maps to provide location information on lost devices. Users can log in to iCloud.com and go to Find My iPhone to see where their devices are located on a Google Maps app rather than Apple’s new map app that users have complained about.

You're in a hotel room, and you want to hook up to the in-room Wi-Fi. And guess what? It sucks, just like at every other hotel you ever stayed at. So Instead you dig out your MacBook and hook it up to the hotel's Ethernet cable, and use internet sharing to generate your own wireless network.

Wait… The newest MacBooks Air don't have Ethernet ports. But don't worry: you can pick up the $60 mySpot from Kanex, a little dongle which takes an Ethernet connector and turns its sweet network payload into a wireless cloud, ready for all your iDevices and your non-Ethernet MacBook Air.

 The iPhone 5 is an incredible smartphone. I’ve been using mine since it arrived on my doorstep at 7:48 p.m. the day after launch day (after a painfully long wait), and I love it. It’s spectacularly thin and light, it’s beautiful — like most Apple products — and that larger display is such a welcome improvement. If you’re upgrading to a new iPhone, you may want to check how Apple purchases can now be migrated between accounts for a seamless transition.

I chose the white and silver model — I’ve had white iPhones for as long as they’ve been available — and I think it’s the prettiest gadget I’ve ever owned. It’s also powerful, and noticeably faster than my already snappy iPhone 4S. Its battery life is excellent, and so is the camera.

Overall, I have a long list of positive things to say about the iPhone 5 — the hardware is just unbeatable. But I think there’s one thing letting it down, and that’s iOS 6.

We already know a few details about the A6 chip thanks to iFixit’s immaculate teardown, but there’s still a lot to learn about how much hard work Apple put into custom designing their A6 chip.

iFixit teamed up with Chipworks to dive into Apple’s A6 processor to find out what makes Apple’s new chip so special. To their surprise, the team found out that Apple manually laid out each of the Dual Arm Corse, making it the first manual layout chip to hit the market in several years.

Some gadget accessories just keep coming back, getting useful again after they've been sat at the back of a kitchen drawer of a closet for a few months, or even a few years. I have an acrylic business-card display thingy which has done duty as an iPad 1 stand, a speaker hook, a phone charging station and –right now — an iPad 3 movie-watching stand. And I thought €8 was expensive for a piece of bent Perspex.

The ItFits looks like that kind of accessory. It bends to fit almost any small phone-sized gadget, and acts as both a stand and a clip. Let's take a look: