Every once in a while, a company becomes so obsessed with a competitor that it loses focus on its own customers. They start designing and positioning their products more to hurt rivals than thrill users.

And I fear that now it’s happening to Apple.

Again. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1Rc4MDmr8o

Apple has released four new TV spots, and three of them tout the brand new iPhone 5. One ad is specifically devoted to EarPods, highlighting the design process Apple went through to create its new earphones.

Unlike the failed Genius ads from the Olympics, these 4 new ads feel much more like classic Apple. Each iPhone 5 spot is 30 seconds and focuses on a particular aspect of the device.

We’ve embedded the other two iPhone 5 ads and the EarPods ad below:

I used to love Pandora. For a time you could use it in Canada and I paid for a subscription right away. Sadly, Pandora doesn’t work up here. Now for the rest of you lucky sots you can enter to win a Pandora One subscription for life.

Interested?

Your iPhone 5 is gorgeous and thin and you love the hell out of it, right? New wallpaper selection for the iPhone 5 is a little bit lacking right now while everyone gets used to the taller resolution, but we went out and dug up 15 amazing wallpapers that perfectly fit the iPhone 5’s taller screen. Check ’em out.

Galaxy on Fire 2 is perhaps the best-looking space game on iOS. With astronomical scenes that call to mind a portable Eve Online, Galaxy on Fire 2 is an action space shooter with RPG elements, such as upgraded ships and weaponry, questing systems, and the like. It’s even made the move to Mac OS X.

It’s been a couple of months since FishLabs, the developers behind the title, released a teaser trailer and a vague September timeline for a release date for the upcoming downloadable content (DLC) expansion, Supernova. Well, that date is actually here, as Supernova is available on both the iTunes and Mac App Stores, for iOS and Mac OS X, respectively.

There have been quite a few worries out there on the web today, with new owners of the iPhone 5 comparing the screen to the older iPhone 4 and 4S. I was one of these early adopters, and I also set the phones next to each other to see the differences. When I turned them both on to look at the difference in screen ratio, I noticed that the new iPhone 5 screen had a markedly yellow tint.

I did what anyone might do upon seeing a possible defect in a brand new gadget device: I panicked.

Then I spent a little time on some other sites on the internet, and found out that I might have overreacted.

It’s about two years behind the Windows release, but who cares; in just under a week you’ll be able to tell those Zune-loving sods to take their “but Macs can’t game” nonsense and shove it down the barrel of your MP5 — because Call of Duty: Black Ops arrives next Thursday. In the meantime, Aspyr has again made the three other Call of Duty titles temporarily half-off, just to hold you over.

Today I did something I swore I’d never do: I bought a white iPhone. Like my fellow Cult of Mac colleagues and many of you readers, I too bought a brand spanking new iPhone 5. Deciding not to brave the crazy lines, I took my chances and waited till later in the day before I picked one up.

Black has always been my color of choice when it comes to iOS devices. I’ve always owned black iPhones, iPads and iPods. But for some reason I decided to go with white this time around, and I’m happy I did. The white iPhone 5 is absolutely gorgeous.

My oh my, is Apple getting a lot of hate from professionals reviewers for the new EarPods. Gizmodo calls them “garbage,” and The Wirecutter’s mixed review says they are no better than $10 earphones. But lots of new iPhone 5 users on Twitter today are saying “ftw.”

I actually like them too. Then again, I liked Apple’s old earbuds as well. They were cheap and cheerful. The price to performance ratio was really good.

The new EarPods sound way, way better than the old ones. In fact, to my ears, the new EarPods have more bass than a pair of $160 Tour earbuds from Beats by Dr. Dre, which are marketed for their extra bass boom. And they cost $130 less to boot.

While we don’t expect a public iOS 6 jailbreak — much less a jailbreak for the newly-released iPhone 5 — for quite some time, it appears as though things could be moving along quicker than originally expected. Noted jailbreak developer Grant Paul just tweeted a screenshot of Cydia on the iPhone 5’s taller display. He’s saying that he didn’t fake the Cydia icon, which would lead us to believe that the iPhone 5 has already been jailbroken.

A4 devices like the iPhone 4 and fourth-gen iPod touch can be jailbroken on iOS 6 already, but A5X devices like the iPhone 4S and third-gen iPad cannot be. Cydia running on the iPhone 5 is an even more impressive feat given the fact that Apple’s newest iPhone sports an entirely new, proprietary A6 processor.

It’s been confirmed that Verizon is actually selling the iPhone 5 factory unlocked out of the box, and you can pop in another SIM card to use the device on even a GSM network like AT&T. Jeff Benjamin of iDownloadBlog has already tried inserting an AT&T SIM card into his CDMA Verizon iPhone 5, and it worked!

Everybody has been totally nerdgasming all over themselves this morning about the thinness of the iPhone 5.  It’s been kind of annoying to be honest, but then once you actually get to caress its skinny little body, you realize no one is overreacting.

The iPhone 5 has a serious eating disorder, and it’s freaking beautiful. The iPhone 5 isn’t supermodel thin, it’s subatomic thin. Like, this iPhone 5 is so crazy gaunt that I’m actually having a hard time texting on it, but I love it.

I had just taped the pre-signed authorization for UPS to the door of my house, when the brown UPS truck pulled up in front. I ran downstairs, signed breathlessly, and took possession of an absurdly small package. Apparently, Apple’s not happy enough with a small phone; they need to make the box it’s shipped in super small as well.

I ran upstairs, sliced the packing tape open, and pulled out an even smaller iPhone 5 box, all shrink-wrapped and beautiful. The exterior retail box is quite a bit smaller than the last iPhone I purchased, the iPhone 4. The iPhone 5 itself? Stunningly small and light, yet fits almost perfectly in my hand, as has been said a bajillion times already.

I pulled off the sticky, protective plastic, held down the Wake button, and let the device do its start up thing. Then came the moment of truth: setup. How long was I going to be stuck at my desk?

Oh man, this iPad mount is either a fantastic idea, or a lawsuit waiting to happen: you decide. It’s called the BiKASE and it mounts your iPad onto the handlebars of your bike.

Oh how I dread broken links on the websites I make. Back in the day it was a lot easier to botch a link, today with WP and other awesomeness it’s harder… but not impossible. Of course, if you’re still creating sites old school you need to have a good link checker handy.

So how about one for $5? Yep we have BLT link checker on sale for $5. What’s that? A latte? An Americano and a scone? Balance the caffeine with knowing that your client isn’t going to find a broken link on the site you just finished. Thought so.

Matias, maker of clicky, mechanical-switch keyboards, has spent the last two years perfecting a new clicky mechanical keyboard switch. The twist? It’s almost silent. If you want the feel of a proper, burglar-killing keyboard but love the (lack of) sound of your modern, slimline notebook keyboard, then this $150 monster might be just the ticket. It’s called — fittingly — the Quiet Pro.

Every review of the iPhone 5 makes great efforts to talk about how light it is. I’ve read those reviews over and over again since Tuesday. Even so, when taking my iPhone 5 out of the box for the first time, I so misjudged the weight that it went flying from my fingers and onto the floor. This is lightness to the point of ephemerability. It’s so hard to believe, and yet it’s testament to the iPhone 5’s construction that such a thin slate of glass and aluminum doesn’t break apart between your fingers like a communion wafer when you touch it, let alone when you — as I did — accidentally fling it across a room. But my iPhone 5 wasn’t even scratched.

This isn’t our review of the iPhone 5. Far from it: we’ll be posting an in-depth review first thing on Monday morning, once we’ve had a chance to put it through its paces in full. These are our first impressions, and let’s say it right off the bat: from the second it comes out of the box, the iPhone 5 seems like such a leap over the iPhone 4S that it’s like picking up your first MacBook Air after lugging around a lunky 2008 MacBook Pro for years. In a couple of years, Apple has improved the design of the iPhone 4/4S so much that the latter now seems absolutely antediluvian.

Gaming is going to be a new experience on the iPhone 5 with that larger 4-inch display, which means it’s going to take a little while for your favorite games to be optimized. Fortunately, there are some incredible titles already available. We’ve put together a list of the best ones, so that you can start enjoying your iPhone’s 4-inch display the day you unwrap it.

The iPhone 5 looks pretty, but how does it fare when it’s actually used in the real world? If you accidentally drop it from 5 feet, will it shatter? Android Authority is already on the case and did a drop test comparison with the iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S3, which you can watch in the video above.

The iPhone 5 dominated the competition. It picked up a few scratches and dings, but the screen never shattered after being dropped 4 times, whereas the S3 screen cracked multiple times and its back casing flew off.

Source: Android Authority

Swampy the Alligator from the hit game Where’s My Water? is turning one tomorrow. To celebrate this milestone, Disney takes a look at Swampy’s first year and the over 2 billion showers he has taken. Bathe in Swampy’s achievements and then head into the game for an exclusive birthday-themed level (tap the birthday present).

Have a happy birthday tomorrow Swampy and thanks for the hours of fun!

After lovingly unboxing your new iPhone 5 today, the first thing you’ll do is install all your favorite iOS apps. But what if you don’t have any? What if this is your first iPhone? Well, we’ve compiled a list of must-have apps for iPhone 5 to get you started. We’ve got Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube clients; news readers; note-takers; word processors, and more — and everything in the list has already been updated to take advantage of the iPhone 5’s larger display.

So dive in and check out the best apps to get you started with your new iPhone 5.

So you just had your own personal iPhone 5 unboxing. What next? If I were you, I’d hop on my bike and go burn a few calories, taking in the sunny view of the city as I go. But where would I put my new toy? After all, there are no iPhone 5 handlebar mounts available yet. Or maybe you live somewhere rainy and dull, and you want to keep your iPhone in a pocket or bag.

Luckily, the RFLKT now exists. It’s a little LCD bike computer that sits on your handlebars, only instead of just spitting out your speed and lap times, it displays sports info beamed to it from your iPhone — 5 or otherwise.

There are many who will tell you that you don’t need a case for your iPhone 5. Heck, even Apple thinks that between the new aluminum back and the strengthened Gorilla Glass 2, there’s no point in a case.

But as this picture shows — taken by a store owner with access to some iPhone 5 display units — the new aluminum back scratches just as easily as it ever did if you attack it with a hard enough object. In this case, it’s the iPhone 5’s liquid metal SIM card tray pin, which to be fair, is one of the hardest metals out there. The edge, though, was scratched up using simple keys.

In other words, depending what kind of pocket you’ll be shoving your iPhone 5 into, you may well want to invest in a case after all, no matter what people say.

Source: Overclockers.org
Via: MacRumors

iPhone launch days, like today, are freaking insane. Rabid fans across the globe line up for hours or even days just to make sure they get Apple’s newest iPhone. It’s always been that way and it gets weirder every year.

Even though this is only the sixth iPhone launch day in the history of the world, iPhone launch days have a rich history of being a little bit odd, with people wearing funny costumes, crazy attention, Apple retail staff cheering like crazy, and just straight up weirdness surrounding the launch of a new electronic device.

Here’s a look at each iPhone launch day in history:

SAN FRANCISCO — This is Charlie Hufnagel, who was paid $1,500 to be first in line for the iPhone 5 at Apple’s flagship store here in the city.

Hufnagel was hired through TaskRabbit, an increasingly popular freelance odd-job company in this economy. He’s been camping out in front of the store for 94 hours (nearly 4 days) to snag a new iPhone for a “private investor.”

In fact, there are about 70 “TaskRabbits” in line here in San Francisco, who are being paid $55 to wait up to four hours for other people. A TaskRabbit rep estimated that one in four in line here are TaskRabbits.