Let the games begin. Within minutes of the first Olympic athletes arriving in London for the summer games, Grindr — a geolocation-based dating app primarily geared towards gay men — crashed due to an onslaught of unprecedented demand. Technicians believe that the arrival of the Olympians created a wave of new customers signing up for the service that caused the servers to grind to a halt.
We recently told you that Apple will be giving free copies of OS X Mountain Lion to customers who purchased a new Mac from June 11, 2012 onward. Everyone else will have to pay $20 to download the new OS in the Mac App Store. Apple’s OS X Up-To-Date Program has already gone live unofficially, and that means you can claim your free copy of Mountain Lion now before it’s made available later this week.
Let’s face it, windows can get out of control. Lost windows off the side of the screen, clutter, window positions… Or this situation, you’re working on a project where you’re taking screenshots or doing a screencast of something. You can’t finish all at once and have to come back to it. Now, how do you think you’ll get the windows back exactly the way they were before?
Oh you can try to do in manually—and wind up pulling out your hair—or you can pick up today’s giveaway Breeze. Usually this is a (well worth it) $8 app, but right now you can grab it for free (which is exactly what I’ll be doing in short order).
If you want to see how it all works before you grab the app, check out the Autumn Apps site and watch the screencast (they had me in the first minute).
The TED organization, which sponsors a range of conferences and talks on cutting edge topics recently launched an ebook series known as TED Books. Like the non-profit’s other initiatives, TED Books are “designed to spread great ideas.” Sticking to that ideal, the organization is making the ebooks, which will be released every two weeks, available across a range of ebook platforms including the new TED Books app for iOS devices.
The move highlights one of the challenges about ebooks – the choice of merchant and platform. That’s a particular concern when it comes to Apple’s iBookstore because purchases can only be read on an iOS device.
This post is brought to you by Chase — a strong supporter of TRANS4M Boyle Heights, a program that provides multiple social services that address Boyle Heights’ particular needs. Learn more here.
While some kids are at goofing off at camp or watching re-runs this summer, a group of teens in Los Angeles are reinventing their neighborhood with the help of iPads.
They’re taking part in a new Digital Storytelling class and the first assignment – run as a contest – is to see who comes up with the best ideas for transforming Boyle Heights. This East Los Angeles neighborhood, described by singer will.i.am who grew up there as a “wasteland” is also home to one of the youngest populations in the city.
One of the many pros of jailbreaking is the ability to theme your iOS device. When you install a custom theme in Cydia, you’re effectively replacing Apple’s default iOS design with something new and fresh. There are many great themes for jailbreakers, but my new favorite is undoubtedly ayecon. Developed originally for the iPhone and iPod touch, ayecon is coming to the iPad on August 3rd.
I’ve been using ayecon on my jailbroken iPad for a couple weeks now, and I couldn’t be happier. Here are some screenshots to give you a taste of what to expect from this benchmark iOS theme:
IGills is another waterproof iPhone case, but this one is a little more waterproof than the rest. It’s billed as a “smart diving system” which replaces $1,000s worth of specialist gear, and that’s not far off the mark.
Every so often, an iOS accessory maker takes advantage of a little-known or little-used feature to create a really unique product that no one else thought of. The FLASHr from Phaze5 is a Kickstarter project that falls right into that category. It’s an iPhone case that lights up whenever you receive a call, text message, or email — but there are no LEDs built-in. Instead, it uses your iPhone’s flash and the LED alert feature in iOS 5.
If there was ever a company mired in Microsoftian corporate nonsense, it’s IRIS, the scanning and OCR company. Clunky, ugly and ridiculously overpriced software combined with hideous hardware, and a lame bird-based logo to boot – if IRIS were a human, it would be a taste-free middle-manager from the early 1990s.
The latest example is the IRIScan Book 2, a scanner which you have to drag over each sheet of paper by hand in order to digitize the letters thereon.
Jumsoft has announced its first pack of Word for Mac templates. Named the Inspiration Set for Word, the pack contains 169 templates for almost any document or project from business stationary to canning jar labels – of them beautifully designed by Jumsoft’s team of professional graphic designers.
Jumsoft has made a name for itself with a range of template collections for iWork and other Apple apps including a collection of templates/themes for iBooks Author and two collections for spicing up emails composed using OS X’s Mail app. The company has also produced two packs of clipart that can be used in virtually application.
Samsung’s Galaxy S III has gotten off to a great start, and according to one company executive, it has already sold 10 million units. But it’s the upcoming iPhone that the majority of us are waiting for, according to a new survey. Demand for the iPhone 5 is “strikingly higher” that that of any other iPhone, and when smartphone sales hit an all-time high this fall, Apple will be the number one beneficiary.
A rare Pixar Image Computer that was originally developed by the Computer Division of Lucasfilm has surfaced on eBay with a $25,000 price tag. The computer is accompanied by an original Pixar monitor and is said to be in good condition, though it’s unclear whether the system actually works.
Sometimes, it’s just fun to compare scores with your friends. Without the urge to compete, we wouldn’t have sports, national videogame competitions, or reality television. Now there’s a new way to measure up against those around you – Solid State Drive (SSD) speed.
Ok, so it’s not really a thing, but here’s how you can benchmark your own SSD to compare it with other SSD devices, if you need to know how much faster one computer you own is than another. In fact, it’s a ton of fun to compare the speed of an SSD, say in this here Macbook Air, and that of a hard drive, like in my Mac Mini. Here’s how.
Apple’s fight against Russian hacker Alex Borodin, who took advantage of an in-app purchasing exploit to provide users with paid content for free, has paid off. The Cupertino company has developed a fix that will make its debut in iOS 6, which is almost impossible to bypass, according to Borodin.
According to a French blog site, the highly anticipated iPhone 5 featuring a larger screen and a 19-pin dock connector will be released on Friday, September 21, 2012.
Shortly after iOS 6 beta 1 made its debut in early June, Cult of Mac reported that users are no longer required to enter their iTunes password when downloading updates or previous purchases from the App Store. In iOS 6 beta 3, Apple has expanded this feature to cover free apps, too.
Finally! Canon has at last announced its answer to Micro Four Thirds and other mirrorless formats. And unlike Nikon, which was content to dash off a crappy toy in the shape of the “1,” the EOS M is pretty much exactly what we hoped for: an EOS SLR packed into a tiny body.
Sources familiar with Apple’s plans have revealed to Reuters that the company’s “iPhone 5” will launch with a smaller, 19-pin dock connector that will make room for a headphone jack on the bottom of the device. The move will mean that existing iPhone accessories — which use Apple’s existing 30-pin connector — won’t be compatible with the new handset.
When Tapbots finally released its highly-anticpated Tweetbot Twitter client on the Mac, the software was labeled as a free Alpha. This means that the developers are continuing to add major new features and bug fixes leading up to the official 1.0 release in the Mac App Store. In fact, users are warned before downloading that there could be major bugs, and all Alpha testers are encouraged to submit bug reports to Tapbots.
Over the weekend, the first update was released for the Tweetbot for Mac Alpha, and the update packs several new features and improvements.
Kicking off this week’s must-have apps list is a new to-do app called Checkmark, which is being labeled the reminders app Apple should have made. There’s also a great new video sharing service called Vyclone, a unique clock app, and more.
Art. It’s something we all aspire to from the earliest of age and a pursuit of all humankind, including ancient cave and modern city dwellers, folks from the suburbs and people from the Renaissance. Head into any art museum and you’ll see paintings along the walls made with a variety of styles, techniques, and philosophical points of view.
Would you like to “brush up” on your painting skills? Practice drawing with colored pencils, pen and ink, water colors? How about acrylics, oils, or pastels. You can on your iPad with Art Set, a $0.99 app from developer LOFOPI.
It must surely be a sign of the impending apocalypse that Microsoft’s operating systems have “more taste” than Apple’s.
I’m referring, of course, to Apple’s inexplicable use of skeuomorphic design in iOS and OS X apps, and contrasting that with Microsoft’s stark avoidance of such cheesy gimmickry in the Windows 8 and Windows Phone user interfaces.
A skeuomorphic design in software is one that “decorates” the interface with fake reality — say, analog knobs or torn paper.
The problem is worse than it sounds.
Contrary to the name, putting a laptop on your lap, isn’t actually a great idea. Laptops can get rather warm, not to mention it’s impossible for air to get below your laptop to help keep it cool (do you think Apple made these glorious devices out of aluminum just for kicks and giggles?). Likewise laptops just on a desk or table not only don’t let the machines cool as well as they could, but they aren’t terribly comfortable to work at for long periods of time.
It’s pretty hard to find a device that works great on your lap and on a desk (believe me, I’ve looked and there aren’t many), which is where the iLap comes in.
Only available in the Continental U.S.
But only the nice kids. The naughty ones will get a T-Mobile Springboard.
One month before Apple shipped its first touch tablet, I predicted that the iPad would become the “Children’s Toy of the Year.”
That column was somewhat controversial, because people were viewing the iPad as a high-end luxury item for technology fans, not a toy for children.
It turns out that the iPad was a combination of the two: It became the “toy” of choice for the children of technology fans who buy high-end luxury items.
iPads for children became a surprisingly huge phenomenon, which toy companies and others jumping on board with apps galore. Still, the majority of American children don’t have iPads, or even have access to iPads. The upcoming mini iPad will change that.
Here’s why small touch tablets will finish what the iPad started, and become as much a part of kids culture as Barbie and Lego.
Kicking off this week’s must-have games roundup is Dark Knight Rises, the official game of this year’s biggest blockbuster. You’ll also find the sequal to Fieldrunners, arguably the best tower defense game on iOS; a great cycling simulator; and a humorous title featuring Usian Bolt, the world’s fastest man.