It’s $5 Friday and we’ve got our first game deal for you!

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The advocacy group Consumer Reports wasn’t too friendly toward the iPhone 4, even after Apple offered free bumpers. They didn’t even like the iPhone 4S either. But with the iPhone 5 they’re changing their tune and saying that the iPhone is “among the best smartphones in our Ratings and the best iPhone yet.”

After conducting a series of tests on the iPhone 5, Consumer Reports concluded that the iPhone 5 doesn’t just surpass the iPhone 4S but also a number of other Android smartphones. They even said that despite the widespread criticism its received, Apple Maps is “competent enough.”

I love the iPod Classic. I don’t own one. But I love it all the same and wish it still played an important roll in my life, the way it used to back in 2006. Luckily, the iPod Classic is now alive on your computer.

Inventika Solutions created this virtual iPod Classic that functions just like the real deal. You can play music on it, move your mouse around the click-wheel to navigate through the menu options, and click play and fast-forward. It’s beautiful time waster for a Friday, so you should go play with it right now in honor of all the iPods you’ve loved.

Source: Inventika Solutions

Via: Gizmodo

The visionary co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, may have been dead for a year today, but the fruits of his incredible imagination, indefatigable quest for perfection and keen design eye are still ripening and shaking from the tree of the company that he created. The recently released iPhone 5 and new Lightning Connectors were  approved by him before he died,  the upcoming iPad mini was greenlit personally by Steve, and Apple’s upcoming roadmap for the next couple of years will probably be filled with projects that he personally oversaw.

Some of Steve Jobs’s last unrealized products loom larger than others, though. Here are the five incredible products from Steve Jobs that we still haven’t seen.

How does an Angry Bird hold a lightsaber if they don’t have any hands? Maybe they’re able to use The Force and to help the weld a lightsaber and slice through mean little piggies. I don’t know. But we might find out real soon. On Twitter this morning Angry Birds posted a linkto their Tumblr where readers can find a GIF of an Angry Bird wearing a jedi cloak with a lightsaber.

The only info we’re given is, “Times Square, New York, October 8th, 10am EST. HINT: Head to Toys R Us at 8am EST!” Is Rovio launching a new Star Wars Angry Birds game, or will it just be Angry Birds Star Wars toys? Your guess is as good as ours.

Source: Tumblr

Did you know that “rucksack” is German for rucksack? Neither did I, until I just made a guess and wrote it down. And Fabric Horse’s new Rucksack Luxe (Luxus, in German) sure is a Luxe sack for your back (Ruck, in German).

Steve Jobs has changed the world four times, by my reckoning. One year after his death, is the world different? What is his legacy? Is it the company that he started, journeyed outward from in disgrace, and ultimately returned to in triumph? How about the devices he had an enthusiastic hand in bringing to market? The business of music and film? What is the world now that it would not have been without Steve Jobs?

It’s all of those things, of course. Jobs’ legacy is not something we can distill into a simple slogan or tagline. Steve Jobs worked for a world in which the design, manufacture, and marketing of consumer electronics enhances our lives in a very human way.

Let me explain.

You broke the back glass of your iPhone 4, but you’re not eligible for an iPhone 5 upgrade just yet. Maybe you forgot to buy AppleCare+. Yeah, you could go and get the back glass replaced for $29, but if you want to save some money and make your iPhone look unique while you wait for your upgrade eligibility you can try what this Redditor did.

Rather than buy a new back plate they added splashes of paint or nail polish into the cracks to give it a funky look. Who knows what will happen if that paint seeps into the components, but when your iPhone is already busted, you might as well throw caution to the wind and try something weird.

Source: Reddit

PadPivot is one of those gadgets which at first appears completely absurd, but then grows on you as you see what it can do. It starts off looking like an over-engineered solution for an non- problem: putting an iPad on your lap. But then you see it stick, prop, and fold, and it all starts to look rather compelling.

Steve Jobs was passionate about a lot of things: simplicity, challenging the status quo, creating products that people loved, etc. He was a man of many shining strengths and deep personality flaws. As one of the most dynamic titans to ever grace the tech industry, one can only imagine what Jobs would think of Apple in 2012. How would he have handled Mapgate? We’ll never know.

Based on what we do know about the late CEO, there are several things Jobs would have definitely been proud of at Apple in 2012.

You know those old-style video demos which presented images as an endless wall, and your point of view was that of a tiny creature as the wall sped past you? Gridditor is that, only its also an iPad photo editing app.

Steve Jobs had a stage presence like no one else. He was just pedaling tech products, but the man captivated his audiences like he was Jimi Hendrix or Elvis or John Lenon. Steve didn’t just introduce a new computer or new iPod, he was selling a philosophy and way of life, and once he activated his reality distortion field on stage you were spellbound by his performance.

There are tons of amazing Steve Jobs videos on the internet, but we’ve gone out and collected the ones that we think are the best. Not just the videos where he introduces products, but also his candid interviews where Steve reveals his thoughts on life. We hope you enjoy them just as much as we do.

On the anniversary of Steve Jobs’ death, Cult of Mac is marking his passing with a series of tributes running throughout the day.

Apple has turned its own homepage over to honouring Jobs, including a message from Tim Cook. It’s stirring stuff, the kind of thing you’d simply never see from any other company. But then Steve wasn’t just any other boss.

The whole web is full of Jobs comment and tribute articles today, so here are some links to some of the ones we’ve read and enjoyed this morning.

Plug in your iPhone or iPad and charge it up, and you’ll notice that while the first 80% or so will go by pretty fast, they actually kind of suck at charging up that last 20%, taking a lot more time to do so than it feels like they should.

There’s a reason for this. Charging batteries up to “full” is a complicated process. There’s no real way to tell if a battery is completely “full” so all you can do is measure the voltage, which (and this is a vast simplification) tells you how much resistance is being met when you try to put more electricity into the battery.

That’s why it takes so long for an iPhone to charge that last 20%. It charges full blast until it measures a certain voltage, then goes into what’s called “trickle mode” to slowly allow small sips of electricity into the battery until it thinks, based upon some software calculations, that the battery is more or less full. But a new algotihm could make the time it takes to charge your iPhone or iPad go by a lot faster.

Hey, you know what’s getting a bad rap these days? Apple Maps! Sure, the app’s got issues, but it’s not all bee stings and bug bites, and on this episode of The CultCast, we’ll tell you exactly why some of us actually love the new Google usurper.

And then, with the anniversary of his death on Oct. 5th, we remember the life and works of Steve Jobs; ponder why the things he touched all turned to gold; and examine the price he paid for conquering the world of tech.

All that and so much more on our newest CultCast! Subscribe now on iTunes or easily stream it via Apple’s free Podcasts App.

Show notes ahead!

Steve Jobs was irreplaceable, but he does have his analogs. Driven, charismatic men who created their own companies based upon their ability to imagine a complete product that had never existed — “a perfect new product, whole, already manufactured sitting before him” — and spend tireless years to bring it to the world.

One of those analogues was Edwin Land, founder of Polaroid. And the number of parallels between his life and Steve Jobs’s life were incredible.

The new 4-inch, fifth-generation iPod touches aren’t out yet, and Apple will only stubbornly insist that they are shipping sometime this month, but Sam Adams at Today’s iPhone noticed yesterday that the Australian Apple website listed ship dates for the new iPod touch as being between two-three weeks.

Not a long time to wait, certainly, but still disappointing considering they were announced three weeks ago and still won’t be shipping out until the end of October.

Source: Today’s iPhone

How things have changed. Five years ago, Apple shipped every iPhone with a dock; now, they claim that no one uses one, and aren’t offering an official iPhone 5 dock at all.

Luckily, you now have an option. Coming in an attractive hardwood version or a choice of either regular or black aluminum, the Lightning Dock is a no-fuss, no-frills dock that works with or without a case and depends on the incredible strength of the new Lightning Connector to keep the iPhone upright.

It also works with the new fifth-generation iPod touch, and it’s pretty cheap: the hardwood version will only cost you $24.95, while the aluminum version is $10 more. That’s without an included Lightning cable: if you want them to ship you one, it’ll cost $20 more.

Source: Lightning Dock
Via: iMore

In a timed announcement made exactly on the one year anniversary of Steve Jobs’s death, Chrisann Brennan — Steve Jobs’s highschool sweetheart and the mother of American journalist and writer Lisa Brennan-Jobs, for whom the Apple Lisa was named — has said that she will be publishing a memoir next year.

Apple marked the anniversary of Steve Jobs death with a tribute on its home page today, the kind of tribute that only Apple could do.

So, the wacky little app-thingy that we all wondered about in iOS 6, Passbook, seems like it’s starting to grow up a bit. Now, when you tap the App Store button in the Passbook App, the new “Apps for Passbook” section of the iTunes App Store, only available via your iPhone running iOS, has quite a few new apps available.

The Apple store is down on Apple’s website, which typically happens when a new product is about to come online and be sold to the public. With the iPad Mini all but confirmed to be released at a separate event, and the iPhone 5 a semi-distant last-week memory, chances are this is a simple update or change. Maybe a simple speed bump for one of the Mac computers? The iMac, perhaps?

Of course, the fan boy in me really wants it to be something super cool, so I’m asking you all here to jump in with your wildest fantasy of why the Apple store is down. Ready? Go!

The Hipstamatic folks sent us word that their new 260 update is here, with some rad new features, like Multiple Exposures, Rock the Vote free films, a new switch for the flash, and fully iOS 6 and iPhone 5 capabilities – no more letterboxing.

You can now create double exposure (or triple or quadruple) to spice up your photographic styles. It’s available as a $0.99 in-app purchase, and should let you play around with lens, film, and flash combinations to your heart’s content.

Coffee Stain Studios announced a new update for its 3D tower-defense game, available for Mac on Steam for $9.99. The new update is named “Still Alive,” and includes two new towers and a new weapon. A new map pack is available, as well, cleverly named “Sanctum – Map Pack 2.” This adds three new levels, each new environment containing its own set of challenges and strategies for winning.

Sanctum takes the standard tower defense game and brings you into the action with a zoomable 3D perspective. You must place towers of differing power types along the route of aliens intending to destroy your space ship, upgrading them as the waves of enemy creeps grow more voluminous and stronger with each successive defeat.

The iPad mini’s rumored announcement is drawing near, with many speculating that Apple will unveil the mythical device by mid-October. We’ve seen a few part leaks of the smaller tablet, and The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Apple is starting to ramp up mass production for the expected launch. Hopefully low yield rates overseas can pick up to meet what will undoubtedly be crazy consumer demand.

Martin Hajek made some strikingly accurate concept designs for the iPhone 5 before it was announced, and now he’s back with Gizmodo for the iPad mini: