Mobile menu toggle

The Wrap: An Unbelievably Beautiful And Elegant Way To Manage Your iPhone Charger

By

Ingenious.
Ingenious.

Sometimes a good idea doesn’t have to be radical. It doesn’t have to have a $70,000 Kickstarter goal. Sometimes a good idea is just simplicity itself: easy to produce, affordable to own, beautifully designed and genuinely useful.

That’s what makes our eyes pop about The Wrap. Designed by Michiel Cornelissen, the Wrap is a simple plug that fits on the USB end of a European iPhone wall charger. Thread your 30-pin dock connector cable through The Wrap and you can easily wrap the whole cord around it. That’s it. Just EUR 9.95.

I love this. It’s just beautifully useful and wonderfully understated. And while The Wall is Europe-only for now, Cornelissen says that if 100 people email him saying they want a US version, he’ll make one. Get clamoring, people.

Source: Michiel Cornelissen

From Your iPhone, With Love: Thank You Pen Does What Cards App Can’t [Feature]

By

Say hello to Thank You Pen.
Say hello to Thank You Pen.

A warehouse nestled in the heart of Louisville, Kentucky is home to hundreds of unnamed machines. Each white box gently wields a robotic arm that grips a normal-looking pen. As I walkdown the aisles separating the machines, disjointed sounds of clicks and squeaks fill the air. I’m in the home of Thank You Pen, a new startup that aims to blend technology with good, old-fashioned, dead-tree communication. “And while the service’s creator modestly says he can’t compete with Apple, Thank You Pen is doing what Cards can’t: putting love, care and soul into every card sent.”

Set Up A Location-Based Reminder With Maps [iOS Tips]

By

Location Reminder Hack

Setting up a location-based reminder on the iPhone is fairly simple. Those lucky souls with an iPhone 4S can just ask Siri to do it for them, but – like the rest of us – they still need to have an address in a Contact entry on their iPhone to make it work properly. Aside from typing in address information into the Contacts app, there’s an even easier workaround, using the Maps app.

Want A Carbon Fiber Black Or iPod White MacBook Air? Give It An iGlaze

By

Apple's ditched iPod white and piano black from their Mac line, but luckily, there's the iGlaze.
Apple's ditched iPod white and piano black from their Mac line, but luckily, there's the iGlaze.

Ever wish your MacBook Air came in carbon fiber black? Or maybe you just miss the classic old iPod white Apple used to ship its MacBooks in, and wish your Air was as clean and ivory?

Moshi’s got you covered. They’ve just announced the iGlaze, an ultra-slim case for your MacBook Air that adds maximal protection, minimum thickness and lets you have your Air in any color, as long as it’s black or white.

Apple And Samsung Headed To Court After Mediation Talks Go Nowhere

By

post-169090-image-2f3968d8f58fca195e6488232b0484b8-jpg

Tim Cook and Choi Gee-sung sat down for nine hours on Monday and seven hours yesterday in an attempt to come to some sort of solution to the litigation mess between Apple and Samsung. Many were hopeful after Tim Cook admitted he’s not a fan of litigation and prefers to “settle versus battle.” Things showed even more promise after Samsung mentioned the possibility of cross-licensing, but after two days and 16 hours, they still couldn’t come to any “clear agreement.”

GreatShield’s VIES iPad Sleeve: Light, Thin, Tough — Pick Three [Review]

By

VIES-1.jpg
Thin and tough, like Carla from Cheers

Protection doesn’t have to be bulky. Think of an cardboard egg box: barely bigger than the eggs it contains, but tough enough to stop its precious cargo from breaking even when stacked up on shelves in a supermarket, or when (presumably) mis-treated by that same supermarket’s delivery drivers.

So it is with Greatshield’s VIES case, a zip-up slip cover that is slim, weighs next to nothing and yet offers a decent amount of protections for your iPad 1, 2 or 3.

Global LTE Fragmentation Is A Big Problem For Apple

By

LTE frequency bands are largely region-specific
LTE frequency bands are largely region-specific

Apple has faced some challenges already when it comes to LTE on the new iPad and it looks like there will be more challenges to come as nearly 60% of mobile carriers worldwide expect to launch LTE service over the next 18 months.

To date, the new iPad only works with LTE systems in North America, a fact that has forced Apple to change the name of LTE iPads. While a new study confirms that LTE will become a global standard for high-speed mobile broadband, it also notes that various regions and countries are focusing on deploying LTE with varying bands of radio spectrum. That could mean devices will need to be designed for specific markets and that international data roaming using LTE will be problematic and potentially impossible.

Never Worry About Finding Free Parking Again With Awesome KurbKarma App

By

KurbKarma makes sure that as long as you share, you'll never worry about a parking space again.
KurbKarma makes sure that as long as you share, you'll never worry about a parking space again.

Brains have been dashed out and arteries spilled over the perfect parking space. Finding a good spot in a busy neighborhood and keeping it secret and safe is the kind of thing many commuters approach with Gandalfish intensity. The rule of thumb is: if you find a good parking space, by all means, never, ever give it up willingly.

Here’s a better idea, though. Instead of fighting tooth and claw for that el primo parking spot, why not keep it in the family instead, passing it onto others in exchange for information about other awesome, open parking spots in the same neighborhood? In other words, why not let parking generate you some good karma? That’s the idea behind a new app, Kurb Karma, and it looks awesome.

Seagate Buys Data Storage Company LaCie For $186 Million

By

LaCie's 2big drives let you transfer files over a Thunderbolt connection.
LaCie's 2big drives let you transfer files over a Thunderbolt connection.

Seagate has bought French high-quality digital storage company LaCie for a reported $186 million. LaCie CEO Philippe Spruch will become head of Seagate’s consumer storage products division. LaCie makes Mac-friendly peripherals, and Seagate has been a long-time titan in the data storage business.

The Best iPhone Cases & Protectors [Best Of]

By

cases-iphone-the-best.jpg

Ideally, we’d all carry our iPhones as God intended — naked. But just as our pink and delicate human bodies need protection from the elements, so does the iPhone. Sometimes all it needs is a skimpy Speedo, other times a full suit of body armor, but you can be sure there’s a case for every occasion. Here’s our roundup of the best iPhone cases out there.

Was IBM Right? Is Siri A Threat To Businesses? [Feature]

By

IBM bans Siri use on the iPhones of its employees
IBM bans Siri use on the iPhones of its employees

Apple has gotten a fair amount of flack over Siri – most of it relating to Siri not recognizing words or phrases, misinterpreting requests, or providing incomplete or inaccurate answers. Apple is even facing a class action lawsuit over Siri not working as promised by iPhone 4S ads.

For IBM, however, the concern isn’t that Siri won’t work as advertised. Big blue is worried that Siri will work exactly as advertised and that confidential and sensitive information will leak outside IBM’s network as a result. For those reasons, the company disables Siri on the iPhones of its employees.

Want To Know Which iOS Apps Are Accessing Your Personal Data? Clueful Tells You Everything

By

Clueful helped identify
Clueful promises to identify "misdemeanant apps on your iPhone."

There has recently been a lot of concern into the way in which our iOS apps access our personal data, and then what they do with it once it has been collected. Since the whole Path debacle in particular, users seem to be more concerned by the issue than ever before.

BitDefender is one security firm looking to capitalize upon that concern with a new app called Clueful, which promises reveal what each of your apps is doing with your data and identify the “misdemeanant apps on your iPhone.”

OmniVision’s Crazy New 4K Camera Sensor Could Be The Missing Link Between The iPhone 5 And Retina Macs

By

This 4K OmniVision sensor could be in your next iPhone.
This 4K OmniVision sensor could be in your next iPhone.

You sometimes here people talk about the iPhone 4S as if it’s a minor upgrade, but even if you’re not wooed by Siri, the camera on the iPhone 4S makes it worth a whole new phone in itself if you have even the most cursory interest in photography. The 8MP back-side illuminated sensor provided by Sony is a marvel — arguably the best camera sensor on a mobile phone outside of the crazy new Nokia PureView 808 — and a serious, serious upgrade over the 5MP OmniVision sensor found in the iPhone 4.

But don’t count OmniVision out for Cupertino’s iPhone 5 business. The Californian digital sensor maker have just announced a crazy 16MP back-side illuminated sensor that could theoretically put the iPhone 4S’s image quality to shame. Even better? Since they are capable of shooting video in 4K resolution at 30 frames per second, they’d take perfect images and videos for those rumored new Retina Macs we’ve all been hearing about.

GameFLy To Begin Publishing Games For Android And iOS

By

post-168985-image-7f45e0cbab7b107eea2cef4de103aa15-jpg

The “Netflix For Games” giant, GameFLy, has decided to test its controllers at mobile gaming. Announced today, GameFLy plans to become a mobile game publisher for both Android and iOS games. GameFLy has set aside a stockpile of cash to help financially burdened mobile developers fund their next great project. GameFLy expects to publish its first game this summer and encourages developers to submit their application to [email protected].

Digitimes: We’re Sorry We Get All Our Apple Rumors Wrong

By

Digitimes, the leading rumor monger in the Apple space
Digitimes, the leading rumor monger in the Apple space

Digitimes has been one of the main sources of Apple rumors over the last several years, but anyone who follows Apple will tell you that the Taiwanese publication is more often wrong than right. While Digitimes will correctly predict something like Apple making 3 variants of the iPad 2 (WiFi, GSM, CDMA), it will also publish a story saying that Apple is bringing micro-projectors to the iPhone.

After being placed under the microscope and heavily scrutinized by Harry McCracken of TIME, Digitimes has issued a statement explaining where its Apple rumors come from, and how the publication will do its best to provide more accurate information in the future.

How The iPad Is Saving The Elderly From Dementia

By

"A new touch screen test for dementia."

While most of us use our iPads for browsing the web, watching YouTube videos, or playing Words With Friends, others actually put Apple’s popular tablet to good use. Cambridge Cognition, a U.K.-based company that delivers the world’s leading cognitive tests, has developed an app called CANTABmobile which helps doctors detect dementia in its earliest stages, when treatment is most beneficial.

How will.i.am, Laurene Jobs and Chase Are Helping Find the Next Edison [Sponsored Post]

By

cult_logo_featured_image_missing_default1920x1080

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.

Singer will.i.am describes the Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights where he grew up as a “wasteland.” He hopes that thanks to science education and tech it can become a place that fosters the next wave of entrepreneurs with the TRANS4M Boyle Heights Initiative.

Backed by $7 million, three-year commitment from Chase, the initiative will help build a center where local teens can learn employable skills in the arts and digital media and explore careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

Get Forklift, The Mac’s Best FTP App, Right Now For Just 99 Cents… $29 Off! [Killer Deals]

By

Forklift is great, and costs less than a buck, which rounding down for inflation is basically free.
Forklift is great, and costs less than a buck, which rounding down for inflation is basically free.

If you’re the kind of web monkey who finds himself spitting up or slurping down loads of files over good old FTP, this is a fantastic deal: Forklift by Binary Nights — widely hailed as one of the best and most elegant FTP/SFTP clients and file management programs available for the Mac — is usually on sale for $29.99, and depending on how much FTPing you do, a pretty good deal at that. But right now? You can grab it for less than a buck, no strings attached.