Apple really wants you to buy into their beautiful Retina display future. So much so, that if customers want to buy an old style MacBook Pro with the same specs as the new MacBook Pro with Retina display, they’re going to have to pay an extra $300 to get it. That extra $300 comes with an optical drive, one extra pound of aluminum, and a lower resolution screen, just so the fatty MacBook Pro can keep up with its slimmer sister everyone’s drooling over, but hey, at least you’ll still have an Ethernet port.
A year ago, I whined and complained that, although the iPad is “awesome,” it’s also a “dandy fancy boy” — for indoor use only.
Yes, there are water-proof “cases” that are little more than industrial-strength zip-lock baggies and bulky padded covers that look like crap and, in any event, aren’t waterproof.
But now it looks like LifeProof is working on an iPad case that both water-proofs and ruggedizes your favorite tablet, without ruining its appearance.
The company hasn’t announcing pricing, but since the iPhone version is $80 the iPad version won’t be cheap.
Phil Zimmerman, the creator of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption for email in the 1990s, has come to the forefront yet again as the spokesman for Silent Circle, a company planning to beta test an encrypted phone call and text message app for the iPhone and other smartphones. The app will be free when it’s released in July of this year, but the service itself will cost somewhere in the $20 per month range.
Zimmerman, long a proponent of technological solutions to civil liberties, thinks people will pay for the privacy.
“I’m not going to apologize for the cost,” he told CNET, “This is not Facebook. Our customers are customers. They’re not products. They’re not part of the inventory.”
That may well be the case, but getting consumers to pay subscription fees is notoriously difficult. Silent Circle plans to offer a solution for easily encrypted email, phone calls, and instant messaging to start, with plans for encrypted SMS in the future.
In addition to the iPhone release, Zimmerman told CNET that the company was planning to roll out an app for Mac and PC as well, but that it’s not ready, yet. They’ll focus on the mobile app first, allowing customers to communicate securely if they both have the app installed. If only one does, the information will be encrypted to Silent Circle’s servers, but not from there to a recipient’s phone.
This sounds great for most consumers needing to keep their legal communication safe and private, but it’s unlikely that lawmakers will see it the same way. It’s possible that Phil Zimmerman may yet again fall under scrutiny as he did when he released his first encryption product nearly two decades ago.
Wow, those folks are quick. Looks like Google will be the first non-Apple company to update their Mac app, the Chrome web browser, to the higher resolution demanded of them by the just-barely-announced Macbook Pro.
Over at the Google Chrome Blog, the company promises to polish Chrome “until it shines on that machine,” referring to the sweet new bit of Apple candy from Cupertino.
In fact, the highly experimental and heavily alpha Canary release channel already has the new retina-display enabled browser ready for download. That’s fast, guys!
As you can see in the helpfully supplied image above, the higher resolution will bring all sorts of shininess and clarity to every bit of the Chrome browser experience. While we assume that Apple’s own web browser, Safari, already has the retina display sewn up, this is some great, super quick work by the folks in the Chrome group, assuring that their browser won’t be left in blurry dust anytime soon.
It might be possible in the near future to violate copyright law simply by selling your old iPad 2 or iPod touch to a buyer from eBay or Craigslist, if a case soon to be seen in the Supreme Court goes horribly wrong. The Supreme Court has been asked to examine a lower court decision to prevent the sale of used electronics without securing permission from copyright holders involved in manufacturing the devices.
So, a mere two days after Apple quietly released an update for its brand-spankin-new MacBook Pro, the magical company is doing it again. This time, the as-yet-released MacBook Air is the target of a new software update.
About MacBook Pro (Mid 2012) Software Update 1.0
This update is recommended for MacBook Pro (mid 2012) models.
The update includes fixes that improve graphics stability, external display support, and USB 3 device support.
Sound familiar? That’s because these are the same fixes that Apple reported for the MacBook Pro model. Sounds like someone announced these babies just a bit before they were totally ready? Ah, well, at least it’s all fixed. Right, Apple?
Walter Isacson’s biography painted the 1970s version of Steve Jobs as a true hippy who didn’t like to take showers or wear shoes. Looks like Ashton Kutcher’s wardrobe team on the set of jOBS has really embraced that ethos and dressed Ashton in a nappy polo shirt and tussled hair while filming at Steve Jobs’s home where Apple was invented.
Making sure you know just how serious he’s taking this role, Kutcher’s rocking the facial expression of a tortured artists whose soul you could never hope to comprehend. Photos were also snapped of Josh Gad in his Woz costume and it looks like the director skinned a baby lama and superglued it to Gad’s scalp. Take a look :
The annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is an invite-only event that centers on the video gaming industry. Held across two massive halls of the Los Angeles Convention Center, it is a draw for any journalist interested in games and gaming, and a source of endless news stories during the week in June it’s typically held.
No matter where I looked at the Expo this year, I saw mobile games and mobile devices. With a few notable exceptions (Nyko had a huge booth full of Tegra-enabled tablets to show off their gaming controllers for Android), most of the devices I came into contact with were decidedly of the iOS persuasion. I’m fairly sure that Apple is winning this round.
Say goodbye to Messages. Apple's now killing it for Lion users.
Shortlt after Apple announced Mountain Lion would be shipping next month, Cult of Mac reported that Cupertino had already begun preparation for the operating system by pulling the Messages for Mac Beta from their official site. The app allowed users of OS X Lion to send iMessages to iPhones, iPads and other Macs, but since it’s a headlining feature of the $20 Mountain Lion operating system, it stands to reason they’d want to start curtailing access to the service for Lion users.
That’s not all Apple’s doing, however. According to a new report, Apple is actually forcibly disabling the Messages Beta for OS X Lion users. They really want you upgrading if you use Messages,
The redesigned App Store in iOS 6 provides a simplified layout for finding apps.
One of the longest running problems on the iOS App Store has been discovery of apps.
Since its launch in 2008, developers and users alike have been asking Apple for better ways to both promote and discover great new apps. With over 650,000 apps currently on the App Store, the current system of finding new apps is clearly being pushed beyond what it was intended for.
According to Apple’s senior vice president of world-wide product marketing, Phil Schiller, Apple is doing a “tremendous amount” of work to make sure that best applications on the App Store get promoted and receive the attention they deserve.
The official Apple Store app has just gotten an incremental update, which now makes it easier than ever to give Apple your money.
The big new feature is Express Checkout, which like Apple’s official website, lets you buy items with your default billing and shipping information with just a tap.
The other feature — exclusive to the iPhone 4S — is a geolocation feature that alerts local Apple Store employees when you’ve arrived to pick up an order. This should make it a lot quicker to pick up your new MacBook Pro than flagging down a random specialist when you arrive, then waiting for him to go in back and find your item.
You can download the new update through the App Store.
Since its introduction, the iPad has been missing some of the iPhone’s built in applications, such as Weather, Stocks, and Calculator. Until now, there’s been no sign of these apps making it to the iPad. With the introduction of iOS 6, though, it appears that Apple may finally be thinking about bringing the remaining iPhone apps over to the iPad.
Google and Apple are the Athens and Sparta of the tech industry. It’s in the DNA of both companies to rule the tech world. They will battle each other for supremacy and, in the process, greatly diminish each other’s power and reach. United, they could accomplish anything. But they will not be united. They will become increasingly divided.
It’s a Greek tragedy unfolding before our very eyes.
As a user with multiple iOS devices, I have hated iOS 5’s handling of notifications across multiple devices with my very bones. Get a notification and read it and clear it on your iPhone? It’ll still be waiting for you on your iPad and your iPod touch. Someone call the Department of Redundancy Department. It’s just irritating.
Luckily, with iOS 6, Apple seems to have figured it all out. Now, as long as it’s an iOS 6 stock app, if you read a notification on one device, it’ll be whisked off your other devices magically, presumably through iCloud. Which is an interesting point in and of itself: will Apple soon be oiffloading all of their Push Notifications to iCloud?
Photo editing is all about making changes to the visual image, using your own aesthetic preferences to make the picture just that much better than the original. With some simple tricks in iPhoto for iPad, you can make that good photo better, and that great photo sing.
iPhoto has three tools that you can use to do just that. Brighten, Zoom, and White Balance. While the features may be fairly intuitive, it never hurts to point them out, as not all of us are intuitive in the same way.
I have a thing for iPhone wallet cases. The ability to carry my iPhone and my credit cards in one unit and leave my wallet at home really pleases me, and I’m disappointed when I have to use a case without this functionality.
When I stumbled across the Zenok leather wallet case on Etsy, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. This unique iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S case is made using a silicone shell that is stitched inside a handmade, leather wallet, which boasts three card slots, and a pocket for your cash.
Each Zenok case is dyed by hand and purposely built to be different and unique, which is why I’m yet to see another iPhone case like it. As you’d expect, it also provides access to all of your iPhone’s buttons and ports, as well as its camera.
It might be pretty and unique, then, but is it worth its $60 price tag?
Your music is important to you, so why use the crappy earbuds that came with your device? Oh sure, they are great as a backup pair to have in a drawer or your gear bag (in case you forget your good ones), but let’s face it, basic earbuds don’t do anyone’s music justice.
The best podcasting app on iOS (alibeit one with a wonky and controversial pricing structure), Instacast has just gotten a huge update making it even better.
We know that you Cult of Mac readers are also a bunch of photo nerds, so we thought that this week’s best-of list could be about cameras. You’re iPhone might be great (and even makes it into this list) but sometimes you need something more powerful, more rugged or just plain better. Here’s our list of the best cameras out these.
Before Apple created the Notification Center for OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, most of us depended on Growl as the most popular way to get app notifications. Growl has been the best way for developers to display notifications in their apps and was probably one inspiration behind Apple’s Notification Center.
Now that Apple is building notifications into Mountain Lion, many developers have feared the fantastic customizable powers of Growl notifications will become a dead relic. However, a recent post by the Growl team is laying those fears aside, announcing that Growl 2.0 will support Notification Center so that developers have even more options.
iOS 6 has some awesome new features, but here's 7 things it's still missing.
We’re super excited for iOS 6. Although it isn’t the complete iOS overhaul many users were hoping for, it does deliver a whole host of new features — like a new Maps app, user interface enhancements, improvements to stock apps, and Siri support on iPad — that we’re certainly looking forward to.
However, it’s hard to ignore the fact that iOS 6 still has some things missing. Things we’ve been waiting for for some time. Here are seven of them.
Back in August of last year, famed jailbreak hacker Comex — the mind responsible for the famed JailbreakMe exploit — hung up his old hacker hat and went to work at Apple as an intern.
Here’s a coincidence then. In iOS 6, the top secret, much guarded exploit used by developers to root their devices — first founded by Comex! — has suddenly been closed after being open for two years, as recent jailbreak superstar pod2g just made note on his Twitter account.
When opening up his new MacBook Pro, an Apple customer recently found the laminated card pictured above that was probably lost in the packaging by some worker at the Foxconn factory. Obviously it’s in Chinese, which adds a bit of mystery to the card because most of us Americans can’t read it. Does the card contain Apple’s secret plans for world domination? Maybe it’s an invitation to a top secret party?
I suppose that product meeting for the V-Moda Vamp went something like this:
Designer: Here it is! The Vamp case. It’s a metal case for the iPhone.
Boss: What the hell is wrong with you? That thing is huge. It’s an embarrassment to the good name of V-Moda. My god. With a box that size you could fit in literally anything. ANYTHING!
So it’s kind of nice to see Samsung ripping off someone else for a change. That all said, this is beyond parody: Samsung is now looking to create its own social network, and their top-super-secret codename for the endeavor? “SAMSUNG FACEBOOK.” You can’t make this stuff up.
