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.

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.

A mere ten days before the scheduled patent infringement trial between Samsung and Apple, US District Judge Lucky Koh rejected two more proposals from Samsung, maker of Android enabled smartphones. Judge Koh entered a supplemental claim construction order in which two disputed terms are now defined. Unfortunately for Samsung, who initially requested the order, the definition decision favors Apple, using the Cupertino-based tech company’s definition in the dispute.

We bumped into neophyte Australian headphones-maker Audiofly in January, during a press-only event at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, and gave two models in the four-model lineup a whirl. Their mid-level AF45 set sounded great for $50; but the next one I tried — the top-of-the-line AF78 ($200) — left me slack-jawed with disbelief; its sound knocked my socks off, even amid the cacophony of noisy journalists.

What makes the AF78 unusual is its speaker arrangement.

Many mid-to-high-end canalphones are powered by tiny armature speakers, while moving coil drivers are found pretty much everywhere except the very high end. Armatures are generally better at producing clean highs and mids, but can lack deep bass; moving coils, on the other hand, are generally not as good at reproducing the clarity of an armature. But the AF78 is part of an elite group of models  — like the Scosche IEM856m I reviewed last year — that employ both a moving coil speaker and a balanced armature in each ear, in an attempt to give the listener the best of both worlds. And it works spectacularly.

If you were (or still are) the proud owner of a Sega Dreamcast, then you may remember the classic title Jet Set Radio (Jet Grind Radio in North America). Jet Set Radio was hailed as a revolutionary game due to it being one of the first to make prolific use of a rendering technique called cel-shading (allowing for a “cartoon-like” appearance of 3D rendered objects). While these rendering techniques aren’t so revolutionizing today, Jet Set Radio remains a rollerblading, music loving classic, featuring wholesale amounts of spray paint.

The iPhone is the top performer in the mobile ad monetization performance space, according to a new report from Opera Software. It is followed by Android devices, of course, and then a large gap in which the rest of the mobile devices are being left behind.

“The iPhone leads the smartphone OS pack with an average eCPM of $2.85,” writes the company in their first State of Mobile Advertising report. “Though it is closely followed by Android devices (at $2.10). The rest of the mobile phone field is significantly behind.”

Now that Apple is fixing the in-app purchasing exploit that Russian hacker Alexei Borodin brought to light this week, it seems as if he’s at it again. This time, however, it’s an in-app purchasing hack that works in the Mac App Store.

The method here is similar as the one Borodin used in iOS, with the user installing some fake security certificates and then pointing the Mac’s DNS servers at a false server run by Borodin. The remote server then pretends to be the actual Mac Store and verifies the purchase, bypassing the real system for in-app purchases set up by Apple and use by developers of Mac apps. Borodin claims that this system has allowed approximately 8.4 million free purchases so far.

It was recently discovered that a Russian hacker had been hijacking Apple’s iOS in-app purchasing system to score paid upgrades for free. The trick was accomplished by bypassing Apple’s authentication servers and routing an in-app purchase through a proxy that sent back a faulty purchase receipt.

While Apple has already attempted to combat this activity, today the company outlined a solution for developers to keep their in-app purchases safe from such an exploit. Apple has also confirmed that the issue will be fixed when iOS 6 ships to the public this fall.

I’m gonna be honest. I totally forgot that Homescreen.me existed. That’s because the website has been in private beta for two years, and I stopped using it after I initially uploaded my iPhone’s Home screen in 2010. So, I after finding out that Homescreen.me has opened its doors up for everyone today, I logged back into my account. Seeing the main apps I used on my iPhone 3GS at the time brought back a flood of memories. There’s something very personal about a Home screen. It represents the apps that are most special to you. But those apps change over time.

After logging back in, I uploaded my current iPhone and iPad Home screens. It was interesting to see how my layout changed two years later and what new apps had been given first page priority. I then shared my current setup on Twitter for my friends to check out.

That’s what Homescreen.me is about: sharing and discovering great Home screens with fellow geeks who love their iOS devices.

A new discovery suggests that Instagram is working on improving its experience on the web. The popular photography network added the ability to comment on and like photos from the browser several weeks ago, and a “View Profile” option was spotted in the wild today by web designer Cole Reinke. While the new menu option returned a 404 error, the finding reveals that Instagram is indeed developing a more full-featured web app for its users.

There’s a plethora of third-party web apps like Webstagram, but as the largest mobile-only social network in existence, an official Instagram web app would be huge.

Tongue firmly in cheek, my buddy Rob Beschizza over at Boing Boing explains the best way for fans of Sparrow to prepare their Macs for all future enhancements and developments that may result from today’s announcement of a Google acquisition.

You might want to wait on actually following these instructions until Sparrow Google Plus integration comes down the pipeline.

Source: BoingBoing

Earlier this week, we reported on the move by Australian airline Qantas to swap out the 1,300 BlackBerries used by its staff (and the related infrastructure) in favor of iPhones. It looks like Qantas is doubling down on Apple and iOS. The airline also announced this week that it will begin offering streaming entertainment on iPads across all the planes in its fleet of Boeing 767 aircraft.

Qantas is launching the new service, which it has dubbed QStreaming, following a successful trial of the service earlier this year.

We’ve had it with wireless providers charging us more money for less data and fewer features, and on our brand new CultCast, we’ll tell you why the prospect of carriers charging for FaceTime over 3G makes us mad as hell!

And then, Faves and Raves! The fun and poorly-named segment where we pitch our favorite apps and gear then vote on which is best.

Don’t miss a very fun new episode of The CultCast. Subscribe now on iTunes, or get all techie like the Dark Knight and stream new episodes right on your iPhone or iPad with Apple’s new Podcasts App.

Show notes below!

If Apple releases Mountain Lion on the same schedule they released Lion last year, they will unleash the latest version of OS X to the world the day after their quarterly earnings call. That means that next Wednesday, July 25th, everyone should be able to drop $20 on the Mac App Store for a copy of OS X Mountain Lion.

There’s one exception though: if you bought a Mac after June 11th, 2012, you’ll be automatically eligible to receive a free OS X Mountain Lion upgrade. That means if you’re the proud owner of a new Retina MacBook Pro, MacBook Air or 2012 MacBook Pro, or any older Mac purchased recently, you’ll get a free upgrade.

All you have to do is go to this page within 30 days of when Mountain Lion drops and tell Apple you’re eligible for an upgrade. Generous, no?

Source: Apple.com
Via: OS X Daily

Here’s another one of those tips that should be blisteringly obvious, but isn’t.

If you try to send a photo via iMessage (or text message), you’re limited to one photo at a time. Go ahead and give it a shot. I’ll wait.

See? From the Messages app on your iPhone, you only have the option to take a photo or choose an existing one. What if you want to send more than one photo at a time, though?

A U.K. judge recently ruled that Apple has to pay for advertisements on its website and in British newspapers saying that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab doesn’t actually copy the design of the iPad. The order was given after the same judge ruled that Samsung didn’t infringe on Apple’s designs, noting that the Galaxy Tab wasn’t “cool enough” to be confused with the iPad. Ouch.

Apple advertise for one of its main competitors? Never! The Cupertino-based company has motioned to appeal the U.K. court’s ruling.

Do bring your own device (BYOD) programs that allow or encourage users to bring their personal iPhones, iPads, and other devices into the workplace reduce costs or do they drive costs up because of the need for mobile management, training, and technical support?

That fundamental question has been the source of a lot of debate, numerous studies, and a lot of sleepless nights for CIOs and IT managers.

The truth is that this is a question that’s difficult, if not impossible, to answer definitively. There are many variables involved in developing and implementing a BYOD policy or program.

Following Google’s acquisition of Sparrow earlier today, Acrylic Software has announced that it has been bought by Facebook. Acrylic makes a Mac/iPad RSS reader app called Pulp and Mac/iPhone app called Wallet. As a development firm known for its top notch design work and attention to detail, the Acrylic team will be joining Facebook’s design team.

Future development of Pulp and Wallet has stopped, but Acrylic will continue to support its users and keep its apps available for download.

Here’s the thing. While WordPress is awesome (amazingly awesome), if you want to get into web development—even if you’re designing and working solely with WordPress—you need to learn HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

That’s where this deal comes in. Across 7 chapters and 235 step-by-step video tutorials you will learn what you need to become a web developer/designer. Simple as that.

Get this deal while it lasts.

The title really says it all: Flower, a baby alpaca over at the Insight Ranch in Southern California, spends her time making farting sounds with her mouth, trembling almost faster than the speed of video and scrolling through photos on her MacBook Pro.

The title screams cute; the video screams something halfway between surrealism and nightmare. This could have been directed by David Lynch on a dare.

Source: YouTube
Via: Laughing Squid

Popular third-party email client Sparrow has announced that it has been acquired by Google. The iPhone and Mac app will remain unchanged, but all development of new features has been discontinued.  Sparrow has promised to continue supporting its user base as it transitions into becoming part of the Google family.

Google will merge the talented team at Sparrow with the Gmail team.

Clueful, from antivirus experts Bitdefender, is a great little app for iOS that tells you which of your apps are accessing your personal data, and exactly what data they may be interested in. We wrote about it back in May when it first hit the App Store, and I liked it so much that I included it in one of my must-have apps roundups.

But it seems Apple wasn’t so keen, because it has now yanked Clueful from the App Store, and no one knows why.