Why does the Curiosity rover only have a 2MP camera, along with just 8GB flash storage? Is it some special NASA trick that pulls more info from low-res sensors? Is it something to do with the kind of space radiation that turned Reed Richards and team into the Fantastic Four? Nope – it turns out that the reason that the Mars Rover is using 8-year-old camera technology is because the camera design was specced eight years ago, way back in the swirling mists of 2004.

Google has slowly been introducing its cleaner, richer, more interactive search answers. You may have noticed these interactive “card-like” results when searching for “weather” or “120 X 50.” Google continues to refine its search tools and yesterday announced a few improvements to make these interactive results even better.

A rare Apple promotional video for the original Macintosh has surfaced online today, courtesy of one of the machine’s creators, Andy Hertzfeld. The one-minute clip, which was produced in 1983 by Chiat-Day, features members of the Macintosh team — including Hertzfeld, Bill Atkinson, Burrell Smith, and Mike Murray — who praise their product for its affordability, reliability, and more.

Site24x7 announced its new iPhone app this week. Site24x7 is a robust enterprise server monitoring solution by the Zoho group, which is best known among iOS users for its Zoho Docs productivity suite.

Site24x7 offers a range of enterprise features for web servers that are hosting critical interactive web apps and cloud services as well as other mission critical services like internal and external DNS service and mail services. In addition to simple reports and alerts about a server issue the Site24x7 can be used to tune servers for optimal performance and uptime.

If you’ve been browsing the Internet every day in the hope that someone’s going to announce a jailbreak for the third-generation Apple TV you bought back in March, then look away now. iOS hacker Pod2g has confirmed that neither he, nor any other hacker he knows of, is working on an exploit for the Apple’s latest set-top box.

My experience of recording music is limited to bouncing down bedroom guitar recordings to free up tracks on a cassette-based Tascam Portastudio, way back in the 1980s. So anything that records 24 tracks simultaneously onto a tiny iPad seems astounding to me. That is costs just $40 makes it even crazier. We’re talking about the new musicians’ iFriend, Auria.

If you’re signed up to Blizzard’s Battle.net network, it’s time to change your password. The company has confirmed that its online service — which powers some of the most popular PC games including Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft — has been hacked. Although Blizzard is confident no financial information was taken, your email addresses and scrambled passwords have.

The new Notification Center in OS X Lion is pretty cool, you gotta admit. It really integrates the notifications from your iPhone, iPad, and various Macs you might use during the day into one place.

While on a Mac, whether desktop or laptop, you can click on the Notification icon in the upper right hand corner of the screen, causing the whole display to shift to the left, and the dark linen background of Notification Center shows up on the right. There isn’t a keyboard shortcut to make this happen, but we’ve got two different ways you can activate it, even still.

Turborilla, the developers behind Mad Skills Motocross — of the best side-scrolling racing games on iOS — has released its first teaser trailer for Mad Skills BMX, which is coming to iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on August 16. The clip shows off the upcoming title’s gameplay, and offers a hilarious little cartoon alongside it.

At this point, most of our readers are familiar with what the next iPhone is going to look like, including the fact that it will feature a unibody design with a two-tone metal backplate. But what’s the story with that metal backplate? Has it been designed that way just to look good and set itself apart from the design of the iPhone 4/4S, or is there a more cogent design philosophy behind the three alternating stripes of metal and glass?

We won’t know for sure what Apple is thinking until the iPhone 5 is officially announced, but one industrial designer has a great theory about why the back of the next iPhone looks the way it does. As is usually the case with Apple’s design, the new iPhone’s back plate doesn’t just look good… it’s incredibly functional and magnificently strong.

I featured UX Write in one of my must-have apps roundups when it first hit the App Store, because it’s one of the best word processors available on iOS. It has now received its first update, and it’s a fairly major one, introducing support for external keyboards, autosave, dictation on supported devices, and more.

This is the next-gen iPhone’s new battery: a 3.8V 1440mAH lithium-ion pack with a watts-per-hour measurement of 5.45 wHR. Compared to the iPhone 4S’s 1430mAH battery — which runs at 3.7V and has a watts-per-hour measurement of 5.3 — this battery has at least 10% more capacity, making it perfectly possible (and very, very likely) that the iPhone 5 will finally get LTE. It’s also thinner, seemingly confirming that the next iPhone will be the thinnest one yet.

Source: 9to5Mac

While it’s not high on visual appeal, new app Android HIFI allows Android users to stream to AirPlay-enabled devices, thus proving once and for all that Android can indeed play nice with Apple technology.

The app works by allowing any AirPlay audio source to play to your Android device, essentially making your device an AirPlay receiver.

The heat shield is off and the supersonic parachute is deployed – this episode of the CultCast is ready for touchdown!

On this new ep., we ponder the Mars Curiosity Rover, and how a team full of Mac users landed it safely on another world.

Then, let us regale you with the tale of how one very well-known tech writer got all his devices erased when hackers stole his Apple ID. It’s a scary story, but to comfort you, we’ll tell you how you can better protect your datas from getting thieved, and which backup strategies we use to keep ours safe from harm.

And finally, Facebook questions! You told us what you wanted us to cover on our new Facebook page, and we’re ready to work for you!

Subscribe to The CultCast now on iTunes, or easily stream new episodes right on your iPhone or iPad with Apple’s newly updated and freshly debugged Podcasts App.

Show notes ahead!

It’s fairly easy as a longtime Apple fan to dismiss the recently aired “Genius” ads as nothing more than a misstep in a rather stellar marketing history by the, well, geniuses in Cupertino. However, a new study by Brandindex Buzz shows a shift in the demographic trends for the Apple brand, which may go to explain the goofy ads as more specifically targeted advertising.

For those of us watching the trial of Apple vs Samsung this week, the fact that Judge Lucy Koh made the companies reveal confidential sales data is something of a no-brainer. The jury will need to look at the sales of the various devices from the two mobile technology giants to decide at some point what the damages should be, if any.

Like we said, Passbook in iOS 6 is going to steal a few tricks from flight apps like Mobiata’s $5 FlightTrack (and $10 FlightTrack Pro), making the apps seem somewhat less valuable.

Whether or not Passbook replaces these types of apps remains to be seen; in any case, Mobiata isn’t going down without a fight, and has just released an all-new, free version of their FlightTrack app for both iOS — and Android.

The newly updated iPad app Easy Strum by Glaswegian developer Poorly Dressed Ape describes itself as “one of the easiest musical instruments in the world.” And it surely is. Just download the app from the Apple store, then play it.

Teasing mobile gamers with trailers and screenshots is nothing new for the mobile gaming giant Gameloft, however, what is new, is a trailer for their first game built off of the Unreal Engine. Gamers first caught a glimpse of the new game (that we now know is entitled Wild Blood) thanks to a sole screenshot depicting a gigantic bloody blade towering over a corpse filled battlefield. Gameloft has now followed that up with a short teaser video and a Facebook page for gamers to unravel clues about the game’s story.

The previously lackluster WordPress iOS app has been updated with a host of new features and improvements that make it more appealing to power users. The new version also features a design overhaul and the sidebar menu interface seen in other popular apps like Facebook and Path.

Google tried to beat Apple to the punch when it announced the Google Maps 3D view right before WWDC, but Apple still blew everyone away with its own 3D Maps technology in iOS 6. And even though Apple’s new Maps app is in developer beta, twice as many cites are 3D compatible in iOS 6 than Google Maps!

The above video compares Apple’s 3D Maps with Google’s in great detail. Make sure to check out Jeff of iDownloadBlog’s full post for more screenshots and info. Needless to say, Apple’s attention to detail has won again.

Source: iDownloadBlog

There have always been two top players in the news reader app market: Flipboard and Pulse. Both started on the iPad and later made their way to the iPhone and Android OS. While Pulse may not always receive as much attention as Flipboard, the app is still beloved by many.

Fans of Pulse will be happy to learn that the free service has made its way to the desktop in the form of a slick, new HTML5 web app.

I use several different Macs during a given day, from a trusty Macbook Air to my Mac Mini to an iMac at my office job. I also use an iPhone and an iPad for various personal and business activities. It helps to have access to all the documents I need to deal with during a given day, regardless of what device I’m using, or what environment I’m in.

iCloud is a great idea, and OS X Mountain Lion and iOS 6 will continue to take the service forward. Today, however, I’d like to show you how I use two similar products to achieve a seamless document experience on my iOS devices. For me, Dropbox and Google Drive represent the best in class iOS apps to interface with my documents for home and work.

The NFL pre-season games are almost upon us with the regular season not far behind. If you’re a fantasy football fan, that means it’s time to join a league (if you haven’t already), research and plan your draft choices, and pick the apps that you’ll use over the course of the season to track all of your key player and team stats as well as to manage your team.

The right tools can make or break a successful season. Here are some of the best apps out there for iOS and Android that can help you keep track of everything and manage your team’s lineup on the go.

It’s August, and you’re either on vacation, or leaving soon. The problem? You just tried to fit into last year’s swimsuit and – worse – you did it in front of the mirror. While it might be a little too late to lose that belly before you hit the beach this summer, take steps now and you’ll be a slimline hottie in time for Christmas and New Year, ready to undo all that good work in a week or two.

To help you, here’s our list of the best fitness gadgets around.