Cult of Mac

Using an iPad on a plane during takeoff is one of the biggest sins in the galaxy. Just ask Alec Baldwin. There hasn’t been much proof that it’s bad, but no one wants to test fate. The Federal Avaiation Administration is finally starting to relax on their electronics rules though.

American Airlines just became the first commercial carrier to get FAA approval to kit their pilots’ flight bags with iPads, and they get to use them in “all phases of flight.” I bet the pilots are stoked that they get play Angry Birds In Space during takeoff.

With Apple’s iPhone 5 announcement now just over 24 hours away, and a possible launch just over one week away, carriers are preparing for what will undoubtedly be the fastest-selling smartphone of all-time. Vodafone Germany is the latest to receive stock of the handset’s new nano-SIM, and they’re ready to be shipped out to the iPhone 5’s early adopters.

If you think of a device that’s the very opposite of everything Apple makes, it would be the NexPhone. Whereas Apple makes a single product for each use-case (desktop, notebook, tablet, phone), each optimized for its own purpose, the NexPhone takes a Microsoftian approach. In fact, it makes the lame Surface “tablets” look sensible. Here’s the NexPhone’s tagline:

The smartphone that becomes a tablet, laptop or PC.

The iPad mini has appeared in a series of images that show the 7.85-inch device fully assembled for the first time. It’s unlikely the device in these images is genuine — it appears to be nothing more than a third-party mockup — but it gives us a great idea of the iPad mini’s size, its features, and what the real thing might look like in your hands.

The Photokina photography show is in full swing, and with it comes a rain of new product announcements. Today is Pentax’s turn, with a few new cameras including the Q10, an extra body for the Q-system.

The Q10 keeps the stupid small sensor in its mirrorless body, gets a little faster and also launches with a pointless new lens adapter.

Samsung has begun shooting its next commercial, and like previous ads, this one will poke fun at Apple and its users — namely those who will be purchasing the new iPhone 5 this week. Unfazed by its recent court loss, the Korean company has erected a fake Apple store, complete with Macs and iOS devices, just so that it can mock every consumer using a rival device in a 30-second video.

Photos of the set, which is currently being constructed in Los Angeles, have begun making their way around the web, and they show the store in all its glory, with fake banners, and even fake Geniuses.

Hate skeuomorphism? Hate the way Apple’s slathering all of its apps with faux dead cow skin? Tough luck, because you know whose idea it was? Steve Jobs himself.

Sure, you’ve used location-based Reminders on your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, but did you know that you can create them from your Mac, as well? If you’re running OS X Mountain Lion and have iCloud enabled on both your Mac and your iOS devices, you can have a seamless location-based Reminders system right out of the box. Here’s how.

Who needs Tim Cook to announce the next-generation iPhone when you have dummy devices leaking out of Taiwan that show exactly what it’s going to look like. Apple might as well just add it to the store already, right?

These high quality images showcase the iPhone 5’s new form factor, including its super slim display, its new back plate, and of course, its new dock connector.

Created and animated by Sam Becket, this cheery video of all the features the next iPhone 5 will pack when Apple announces it tomorrow.

Unlike some of the videos that have gone around lately, it’s remarkably down-to-earth, emphasizing (as Apple will) the device’s extraordnary thinness, its new antenna, the new 9-pin Dock Connector, LTE, the new nanoSIM, the longer screen and more.

When Apple releases iOS 6 this week, the built-in YouTube app on your iOS devices will disappear the moment you update your devices. But you won’t miss it, because right on cue, Google has launched its official YouTube app for iPhone, and it’s available to download now.

Flipboard started out as an iPad app, then an Android app. Now the two-year old news app is fast becoming the go-to app to beat on all platforms with its clever re-do of cluttered blog layouts into silky smooth print-like pages that just beg to be read on a mobile tablet.

It’s pretty clear that the iPhone is going to boost Apple’s bottom line this coming Wednesday, September 12, when it’s expected to release along with an invite-only event at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. Michael Feroli, chief economist for investment firm, J.P. Morgan, thinks it might actually raise the overall U.S. economy.

Yeah, that’s kind of a big deal.

Renowned and long-time Apple executive Jony Ive has purchased a $17 million home on San Francisco’s exclusive “Gold Coast.” The 45-year-old designer behind products like the iMac, iPhone, and iPad is now the owner of a 7,274-square-foot abode overlooking the bay area.

Given Ive’s British heritage, it’s only fitting that his new house features its own courtyard garden and “cathedral” ceilings. Not too shabby, even for a man that’s been knighted by the Queen of England.

Steam, the online portal for Mac and PC games, announced a new beta feature coming tonight to PCs and soon to Macs – The Big Picture. Parent company Valve has created a new way to play games purchased through the Steam store, using the same exact Steam friends list and games you already own.

Once you’ve updated the Steam client, you’ll be able to click a button and play your games with a controller, a mouse and keyboard, or what have you. Valve has made the new interface controller-friendly, designed to kick back on a couch and play games right on the big screen TV you already have in your living space.

You gotta give it to Rush Limbaugh; at least he’s candid. During his radio show today, he decided to talk about Apple’s upcoming iPhone 5. According to emails from his listeners, people are “depressed about the new iPhone.” Why? Because we already know everything about it! The 4-inch screen, LTE, slimmer design — it’s all just meh.

Apple still has a lot of growing to do in Russia, but the good news is that the iTunes Store may finally be launching there in the coming months. The iTunes Store has not made its way to Russia after all these years mainly due to the country’s pervasive culture of copyright infringement. As part of the company’s continued rollout to new international markets, Apple is reportedly in talks with the Russian music industry to allow iTunes digital downloads. Not only that, but the price of a song on the Russian iTunes Store may be less than the traditional $0.99/track rate found in the U.S.

Multiple airlines have already announced plans to support Apple’s digital wallet service called Passbook, and now more companies are jumping on the bandwagon. Accessco, a leading provider for attraction ticketing, will start rolling out support for the Passbook iOS 6 app in the coming weeks. This means that Cedar Fair Entertainment U.S. theme parks (Cedar Point, Kings Island, etc.) and attractions like the Columbus Zoo will work with Passbook on the iPhone.

Everyone knows that the “upgrade” to OS X Mountain Lion severely reduced the battery life in Mac laptops by up to 38%. And while OS X 10.8.1 helped things some, the fix was still meager compared to the oceans of juice you comparatively got on the same machine running OS X Lion.

OS X 10.8.2, though? Much, much better. In fact, according to The Mac Observer, in the latest Build 12C35 of OS X 10.8.2, not only does the latest development version of Mountain Lion give users a bigger upgrade in battery life than OS X 10.8.0 or OS X 10.8.1, but their test system — a 2011 15-Inch MacBook Pro 2.0GHz i7 — now has more battery life than it did running OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard, the previous champ Mac operating system when it came to conserving juice.

In fact, while their test system lost 105.5 and 80.5 minutes of battery life compared to 10.6.8 in OS X 10.8.0 and OS X 10.8.1, respectively, it actually gained eight minutes against OS X 10.6.8 in OS X 10.8.2. Now those are some impressive results. Results I’m now off to test for myself.

Source: Mac Observer

Here’s another one of those quirky, brilliant hidden features of the iPhone’s operating system. I’m sure you’ve all muted a phone call while on the line with someone, right? What about when you’re on speaker phone? Mute makes sure that the other person can’t hear you, but you certainly can still hear them. That can be frustrating, especially when in a room with other folks, like during an interview.

Sometimes it’s just good to mute both sides of the conversation, right? Hold is the way your iPhone can do that.

For the most part, iOS’ “multitasking” does a great job of letting you get things done, and many of the apps you’d switch out to on the desktop to perform another task (mail, finding and using a photo) are accessible from the share-sheets within the iOS apps themselves.

But there’s one thing that constantly bugs me, especially as a user of Launchbar on OS X: There’s no way to make a quick note and save it without leaving the current application. But using a mixture of Twitter, iOS 6, Notification Center, and web services If This Then That (IFTTT) and Dropbox, you can roll your own.

And while the setup takes a little work, once it’s up and running it really is a helluva useful little hack.

Ever since the iPad 3’s magnet-reversal killed the ability for my Skech Porter case to wake the screen, I have been looking for an iPad case I can keep on all the time. The criteria are as follows, in no particular order:

• Slim and light.
• Functional, but not too complex.
• Very good looking.
• Magnet-enabled
• Embossed map of New York or Hong Kong on the outside.

The last of these was just a joke, but the New York Hong Kong (NYHK) cases includes it and everything else on the list. In fact, if not for one important niggle (which is the fault of the iPad 3 itself), then the NYHK could be just about the best slimline folio case I have yet tried.

I have a million ideas for great apps. I bet you do too. Here’s the problem—I couldn’t program my way out of a paper bag. I don’t think I’m alone in this quandary either. So…

Knowledge to the rescue! We’ve got a cool ebook—Turn iPhone App Ideas Into Reality With This Ebook Bundle: Learn How to Successfully Build & Launch iPhone Apps—that solves a lot of pain points for the whole “turn an idea into an app into money” problem.

At one time, deep back in the swirling mists of time, Polaroid was like the Apple of photography, not only making the best stuff but also inventing new ways to do things. Now, the brand is nothing but a label slapped onto a bunch of crap by the current owner.

But that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing amazing going on in the analog instant film world. Take a look at the Impossible Project’s FPU (Film Processing Unit), an amazing gadget that marries your iPhone to real, instant analog photos.

Buying an unlocked iPhone and using a prepaid plan can save you a lot of money over two years. Over $1000 in savings actually.  T-Mobile is the only major U.S. carrier that hasn’t landed a deal for the iPhone yet, but they’re not letting that stop them from getting new iPhone customers.

This week T-Mobile is pushing their new Unlimited & Unlocked campaign to get future iPhone 5 owners to buy an unlocked iPhone and bring it over to their network where they can save $1200 over two years versus AT&T.