Cult of Mac

Let’s say you want to program, oh, everything. Websites, responsive-design websites, iOS games, and iOS apps. Then let’s through in, just for kicks and giggles, Ruby and PS6. Cool?

This is hours and hours of classes. If you take classes the “traditional” way in a classroom, getting through all this will take a while. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for in-person classes (I teach them myself), but I’m also a big fan of self-paced, online courses that let you learn at your pace and on your own terms/time.

This is why I like these bundle deals for courses. Like the Programming Bootcamp we kick off today.

The wonderful role-playing game that is Bastion kicks off this week’s must-have games roundup, accompanied by Blast-A-Way, an awesome new puzzle game from Illusion Labs; Dragon Island Blue, the closest you’ll get to Pokemon on iOS right now; and Granny Smith, a platform game that features a granny on rollerscates. Need I say more?

Imagine jotting down a quick memo, tossing it into the air and having a little magical fairy swoop by and catch it, stashing it away safely for later reference. TopXNotes is the next best thing! We all know and love our Mac Stickies but imagine them on steroids. That is what you get with TopXNotes, the most comprehensive task manager yet. Let’s face it, Stickies aren’t fail proof and those quickly jotted notes can sometimes be crucial. TopXNotes constantly autosaves your notes and categorizes them to help insure anything worthy of being written down doesn’t accidentally fall through the cracks.

Index Card allows users to organize their stories, articles or thoughts without adding a lot of unnecessary weight to the app. When I first tried Index Card about two months ago, I tried it against a number of other apps that contained similar index cards features. For the sheer act of organizing a story, which is why I originally downloaded the app, Index Card came out on top above other apps like, for example, Storyist. Storyist, while working great as a story writing app, didn’t offer some of the features in its index cards feature that the Index Cards app offered. And if you want to check out the app, now’s a good time — it’s on sale for $2 (from $5) till early tomorrow morning.

The success of devices like the iPhone and iPad in healthcare has become so pronounced that the Department of Health And Human Services has begun to single-out the use mobile devices as part of the meaningful use requirements for electronic health records (EHR) systems. In addition to identifying mobile device use, the agency has also taken steps towards explicitly regulating mobile device security needs in the healthcare industry.

It’s no secret that many of us aren’t fans of the new shared data plans being offered by Verizon and AT&T. Worse are the tactics these carriers are using to all but force us into the new plans. Consumers aren’t the only one’s disappointed, as Sprint and T-Mobile both discourage the practice and prefer to stick with the assumption that users enjoy having unlimited data with no fear of overages. Why should anyone have to pay a premium to see their data capped and divvied up between their data hungry family?

The Tweetbot for Mac saga continues, and this time the guys at Tapbots have come out of left field to release the official beta of their Mac client. The app is available for free now, but there’s a catch: you have to already be a Tweetbot user.

Multiple updates have been released for the alpha version of Tweetbot for Mac, but Tapbots announced earlier this week that it would be discontinuing public testing of the app before it officially launched in the Mac App Store.

When the new iPhone is released with an all-new, totally redesigned 9-pin dock connector, even with an adapter, it’s going to throw the entire third-party iPhone accessory market into chaos. And unfortunately, it looks like Apple’s giving accessory makers no time to prepare with an early peek at the 9-pin connector. When the next iPhone debuts, it will take months for compatible accessories to be released. Sink or swim time.

Apple’s decision to ditch Google Maps in favor of its own mapping technology in iOS 6 wasn’t much a surprise. However, Amazon’s decision to reject Google Maps in its second generation Kindle Fire tablet is a bit of surprise – particularly since the Kindle Fire is an Android device.

Unlike Apple, Amazon isn’t developing its own mapping systems. Instead, the new Kindle Fire will rely on mapping functionality from Nokia. Unlike the original Kindle Fire, which had no innate location services or maps app, the new version will sport  location-based services, though whether they will be based integrated GPS or solely on Wi-Fi triangulation (like the Wi-Fi only iPad models and the iPod touch) is still an unanswered question.

Clearly the “military” part in Griffin’s Military Grade Survivor case for the iPhone doesn’t refer to the color. While olive drab is an option, the majority of the rugged cases come in candy colors more suited to a pre-schooler’s toy box than the killing fields of, well, whichever countries the U.S is currently at war with.

What I want in a rugged sports camera: High definition (to see every detail), a waterproof case (so I don’t have to worry about taking a dip), a slim and stylish body (to match my own!) and probably some other things I never thought of yet.

And here comes the Sony HDR-AS10 HD Action Camcorder, which takes care of all of these bullet points, including the last one.

Could IBM’s Watson replace Siri? That’s an interesting question and IBM’s answer appears to be yes. Big Blue is working to turn the supercomputing solution that made news when it beat Jeopardy! champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter into an app that could run on a smartphone. If successful, IBM will turn Watson into a supercharged version of Apple’s digital assistant.

Wowsers! Western Digital’s Thunderbolt My Book VelociRaptor Duo is all about the big numbers. 10,000 RPM platters, 2TB storage, 10Gb/s transfer (in both directions) and – if you daisy-chain it with other Thunderbolt drives – you can RAID things up to make them even faster.

Heck, even the price is impressive: $860. Ouch!

This is fantastic. The guys over at Macrumors have put together a fantastic and very Apple-like video, expounding upon the virtues of the next iPhone’s larger 4-inch display. More apps, bigger homescreen, no more letterboxing in movies and widescreen gaming are the primary qualities promoted here. It’s fine work, and it really has me excited to see how Apple’s going to demonstrate this same capability come September 12th.

Source: Macrumors

Dr Web, a Russian antivirus software specialist, has discovered a new piece of malware that targets computers running Mac OS X and Linux. Named “Wirenet.1,” once installed the software steals all of the passwords you enter into your web browser, mail client, and other apps, and has the ability to log your keystrokes.

I can’t think of many things worse to do on a bike than ride it indoors on a stationary trainer. After all, without the world going by and the wind in your hair, you’re effectively just sitting on a stool and waggling your legs.

However, if forced to use these blow-up dolls of the bike world, then I’d insist on one that connected to my iPhone 4S or iPad 3 via Bluetooth 4 and let me control it and hook it up with third-party app. And amazingly, that’s just what Wahoo’s Kickr PowerTrainer does.

iOS developers are slashing prices for Labor Day. The likes of EA, Gameloft and more are reducing some of their most popular titles to as little as $0.99. We’ve compiled a list of some of the hottest titles on sale, including Real Racing 2, Dead Space, Madden NFL 12, Mass Effect Infiltrator, Max Payne Mobile, and more.

Over at the IFA tradeshow in Berlin. Zagg has launched a couple of new iPad keyboards. And one of them, the Pro Plus, has something I have missed ever since I took to typing on my iPad in the corners of dark and seedy bars: a keyboard backlight.

Apple has released a new white paper for CIOs, IT leaders, and IT professionals. This one targets FileVault 2, which was introduced in Lion and remains present as a high security feature in Mountain Lion. The 42 page document joins a growing collection of white papers and guides available from Apple that detail the mechanisms and best practices for integrating Macs into Windows-centric enterprise environments.

On August 22, it became apparent that retailers across the United States were beginning to see shortages of 27-inch iMacs, sparking speculation that Apple’s popular all-in-one could be about to get a much-anticipated refresh. Now those tight supplies are affecting Apple’s own retail stores, which are quickly running out of both 27-inch iMac iterations.

Fearing the fury of your boss after a really crappy performance isn’t unique to any profession. No one wants to make the big kahuna angry, and see them go nuts. Samsung’s executives tried to take the “maybe the chairman won’t be so mad if we wait a few days to tell him the bad news” approach. It didn’t work.

Last Friday, Samsung received the verdict that Apple won the patent lawsuit in the U.S., but top executives at the company waited four days before telling the company chairman Lee Kun-hee the bad news because they were afraid how he might react. Apparently, he freaked out a bit.

Etchings is an iPhone photography app which takes your pictures and turns them into very realistic etchings. Or fake etchings, I guess. Whatever you call them, if you pick the right source pic then you’ll end up with something that looks as if you lacquered your own metal plate, etched it, dropped it into an acid bath, washed and dried it, inked it up and ran it through a printing press.

Only instead of taking a whole morning, it takes just seconds.

iOS developer Marco Arment has discovered two new iPads — believed to be two iterations of the upcoming iPad mini — in his Instapaper developer logs. The devices have the “iPad2,5” and “iPad2,6” model numbers, according to their operating system, which haven’t been seen before, and could point to Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + cellular versions of the device.

At this point, despite Tim Cook’s claim that Apple is “doubling down on secrecy”, we’ve seen pretty much everything there is to see when it comes to the new iPhone. If we Apple fans were peeping toms, the iPhone 5 would be like spying on a girl we have a date with Friday night and, instead of seeing her merely undress, witnessing her actually take off her skin and dance around her bedroom as a skeleton.

There’s not much more to see, but the boys over at Nowhereelse.fr — who have just been on fire this year when it comes to iPhone 5 parts — have posted some more shots of the next iPhone, including some very good comparison shots putting into perspective just how frickin’ thin this phone is compared to what came before. It’s a wafer!

Sources for Bloomberg have corroborated recent iPad mini rumors by confirming that the device will launch this October with a 7.85-inch display supplied by AU Optronics and LG Display. This will be the first time AUO, which supplies displays for Apple’s MacBooks, will supply a display for one of the Cupertino company’s iOS devices.