Cult of Mac

Scientific instruments usually look crazy weird and aren’t designed to be user-friendly for the every day, non-scientist man. Lapka is looking to change that with their beautifully designed, semi-affordable Personal Environmental Monitor.

Lapka allows iPhone users to attach four different measuring instruments which can test for radiation, nitrates, humidity, and electromagnetic frequency, so you can create a perfect climate in your home, make sure your food is truly organic, find the perfect spot for your router, and make sure you’re not going to get cancer.

Will the next iPhone have an 8 pin or 9 pin dock connector? The iOS 6 beta says 9, but if you count the pins on the leaked dock components, there are only 8. Which is correct? Both: according to a new report, the new dock connector’s aluminum shell teams up with the 8 gold pins to make a ninth pin, resulting in 60% less real estate than the existing 30-pin connector, and better transfer rates with a fraction of the electrical contacts.

While Apple’s latest iOS 6 beta didn’t make any significant changes to the platform’s front-end — aside from removing the YouTube app — it did make some changes under the hood. In addition to “bug fixes,” it appears the fourth beta has made some improvements to App Store download times that make updating your apps super snappy.

I’ve been a big proponent of the iPad in business since Apple first announced its tablet more than two and a half years ago. In that time, the iPad has more than proved its value in companies of all different sizes and across virtually every industry. That said, the iPad isn’t a fit for every job within every workplace. If a company is considering investing in iPads for its employees, one of the first things that company and its IT leaders need understand is how the iPad will be used.

That seems like a pretty basic step in the procurement process, but it’s one that seems to be getting overlooked by some companies – including one very large enterprise company that should have known better.

If I owned an iPhone, then I’d already have bought the Olloclip lens, a clip on widget which adds fisheye, macro and wideangle lenses to the iPhone using a slip-over clip. It’s impossible to line it up wrong, and it fits in a pocket or bag. But I don’t have an iPhone. I have an iPad. And I hate futzing around with all the magnetic lenses I have: they’re easy to lose, easy to get dirty and impossible to line up. What I need is a Mobi-Lens, a universal clip-on lens from Kickstarter.

It seems like Apple’s sixth-generation iPhone will be the first iOS device to boast a brand new, mini dock connector when it launches this fall. But there have been rumors that claim Apple will refresh all its iOS devices to make the new connector a standard across its entire lineup.

Not only does this seem highly unlikely, but there’s one reason why it’s an impossibility: Apple’s supply chain just couldn’t handle a refresh that big.

The”leaked” asymmetrical screw we reported on last week has turned out to be a fake, put forth as an experiment by a Swedish design company on how Apple rumors propagate themselves across the internet.

If you’re a Mac user on the Internet, chances are you’ve come across a few websites where embedded content isn’t displayed correctly. Instead you get an icon or an error message saying Missing Plug-In, often with few additional details about exactly what is missing.

While there’s no single installer which will solve all missing plug-in problems, there are a few common things to start with. If those don’t work you can delve deeper into non-common formats or the forgotten codecs of yesteryear.

You may already know that you can right click on any file in the Finder and choose “Open With” from the contextual menu. This gives you a list of all the apps Mac OS X thinks can open that file. An image file, for example, will show Preview (default), Firefox, Google Chrome, and any image editing app that you may have on your system, like Adobe Photoshop or Fireworks.

You may also know that tapping the space bar after clicking on any file in the Finder, Open and Save dialogues, or in Mail app, will give you an instant preview of that file. This feature is called Quick Look, and it’s been in OS X for a while, now. iTunes will play their audio content, images will zoom to their actual size, and videos, if you have the right codex on your Mac, will play in a little pop up window.

What you may not know is that these two features can be combined now in OS X Mountain Lion.

The BBC has updated its iOS today, finally delivering high-resolutions visuals for the third-generation iPad. It also introduces “improved video performance,” better accessibility with VoiceOver controls, and more.

If you’re the proud owner of a Retina MacBook Pro and you’re on the lookout for great apps that showcase its high-resolution display, don’t spend your spare time wading through the Mac App Store searching the hard way. Check out RetinaMacApps.com — a simple site that brings together all the Mac apps that are now Retina-ready.

As we edge closer towards the unveiling of Apple’s sixth-generation iPhone next month, component leaks have hit their peak. Last week we showed you images of some of the handset’s internals — including a number of flex cables and a display shield — and today we get our first glimpse at what appears to be the iPhone 5’s logic board.

You’re an American, and you’ve just watched your athletes come away with a barrel full of gold medals in London. Maybe you’re feeling a little patriotic; maybe a little like you want to go out and train for Rio de Janiero. If so, then Monster has created the perfect earphones for you: A special edition “USA” version of their impressive, washable, iSport IEMs.

The latest Cult of Mac Deals offer delivers something that ensures you can create (and publish) your own professional-looking websites without having the skills of a professional web developer. That’s because MacFlux 4 makes it so easy – and we’re offering it for 50% off at just $50!

What is MacFlux 4?

MacFlux 4 is an advanced HTML5 website design application, capable of creating stunning sites completely from scratch. This powerful Mac web design software is a creative design environment rather than a template-based solution (although it does include free website templates to help get you started). And if you’d rather not create HTML5 websites, MacFlux 4 can handle standard HTML, PHP, Ruby, JSP, and more…no coding required.

Kicking off this week’s must-have apps roundup is a brand new Twitter client called Slices, which claims to be the world’s first Twitter app that allows you to break your timeline into individual streams, follow live events, browse Twitter by category, and more. We also have a “magical” app called Cardiio that accurately monitors your heart rate simply by looking at your face; the best blogging app for iPad yet called Pages; and more.

The Mini Boombox ($100) is Logitech’s entry into the hotly contested Bluetooth micro-speaker contest. Like its contemporaries (the Jawbone Jambox and Monster iClarityHD are two prime examples), the Boombox supplies big sound in a tiny, wireless, battery-powered package — only in this case with Logitech’s signature sleek, stylish approach and a futuristic control panel. Let’s take a look at how it stacks up.

I wrote a column last week saying that the “smoking gun” document Apple submitted into evidence in the Samsung patent infringement lawsuit does not constitute proof of infringement by itself.

Still, it’s a remarkable document that does prove something: Samsung is very impressed with Apple. In fact, it’s clear that Samsung is a huge Apple fanboy. 

We told you earlier this week that Apple was preparing to release its first beta build of OS X 10.8.1 to developers, and the 10.8.1 beta has now been seeded for registered developers in the Mac Dev Center. Apple hasn’t noted any known issues or added features, and developers are asked to focus on compatibility with Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange in Mail, PAC proxies in Safari, SMB, USB, and Wi-Fi and audio when connected to Thunderbolt display.

This new version (build 12B13) is the first developer beta to be made available after Mountain Lion’s public release in the Mac App Store last month. Apple should be pushing out 10.8.1 as an official update for non-devs in the coming weeks. The current shipping version of Mountain Lion is 10.8.

Heading up this week’s must-have iOS games roundup is a brand new Ghostbusters game that promises to be the best augmented reality game in the App Store. We also have a great online strategy game in the form of Tiny War XD, Activision’s legendary Pitfall!, and more.

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Seriously, don’t. Why encourage the developer of this sneaky Trojan horse of an app when it’s only going to be pulled from the App Store, whether tonight, tomorrow, or on Monday? Paying $1.99 to a developer who’s fairly obviously hiding tethering features within a app isn’t the way to advocate for a loosening of the restrictions on such features.

The app, called DiscoRecorder, was released today by developer Michael Leatherbury. The screenshots uploaded to the App store (see above) show only a black and white skeuomorphic cassette tape recorder interface and some innocuous recorded voice memos. What the app really does is completely different.

Even with the iPad eating away at the time we spend in front of the bigger screens — in my case, the iPad is my screen of choice when watching Netflixed TV shows — cable subscriptions still have a ton of appeal. Want to watch the Olympics live on your iPad via the official NBC app? You’ll need a cable subscription; and then there are all the recent great cable shows: Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, etc.

But you’ll need a guide to sort through the mire, and that’s where the i.TV app and your trusty iPad or iPhone comes in.

It was time for another Apple expert witness today, who said that consumers would be willing to pay $100 for three specific, patented features that are at issue in the high-profile, high-stakes court case against Samsung. John Hauser, called by Apple as an expert due to his role as a marketing professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), said that in his internet survey, consumers were willing to pay this much more for features like scrolling or multitouch. The survey, Apple proposes, has relevance when calculating potential damages for Apple due to potential patent infringement. Apple is seeking over $2.5 billion from Samsung.

On the sixth day of the Samsung-Apple trial, deeply granular elements of each company’s products continue to be mined for infringement claims. Testimony from industry experts focused on innovations present in scrolling and pinching gestures used on touch-screen gadgets like the iPhone and whether Samsung blatantly ripped them off.

Judging from the cheap seats of the media bench, the claims appear valid. In particular, visual evidence comparing the functionality of the iPhone’s operating system to that of its rival makes similarities pop out. For example, two-finger gesturing to zoom in on web browsers on relevant Samsung and Apple products is practically the same. 

Several iOS device users are reporting an error message that reads, “mail service imap.gmail.com is not responding” today. They’re posting in Google’s Gmail product forum, and user SonaD, marked as a Google employee, has posted the following:

“We are aware of an issue where users are receiving an error that ‘”imap.gmail.com” is not responding’ when using IMAP on their computers, mobile devices, or tablets. We are currently working on resolving this issue.

Not all accounts are affected, so if you have multiple Gmail accounts, you may notice one works fine, while the other returns this error.

In the meantime, you can login to Gmail through your web browser (https://mail.google.com). On your phone or tablet, you can also use your device’s browser or if you’re on Android or iOS, you can download the Gmail application. I realize it’s not the way most of you want to get to your mail, but it will still allow you to get to your mail on both your computer or mobile devices.

Thank you again for your patience as we work on resolving this. We will update this post once I know all users are fixed.”

The advice above is echoed on the official Gmail support page, as well. Until it gets cleared up, use a web browser, mobile or otherwise.

Via: All Things D
Image: Tech Nutty

When Dropbox acknowledged its recent data breach last week, the company noted that it will be adding a range of security solutions in an effort prevent such a breach from occurring again. One of the technologies that Dropbox plans to implement is two factor authentication, which requires another identifying item beyond your username and password to grant you access to your account.

The second item in two factor authentication can be any one of a range of technologies like a smart card that needs to be swiped, a USB flash drive or other mobile that contains security certifications, a one-time user password token like RSA’s SecurID, or a biometric input like a fingerprint scan.

One company has another interesting option, however, your location.