Cult of Mac

The unfortunate reality of trying to replace cable with video subscription services such as Netflix or Hulu is that, well… they kind of suck. Okay, so that’s my opinion and it’s completely possible that you’re happy with the Walmart bargain bin selection of movies Netflix has to offer, or being last to find out that The Island was just purgatory and the whole point of LOST was, well… pointless. There’s many reasons why I’ve been unable to cut cable out of my life, and if I’m going to be paying for it every month — I might as well get my money’s worth. That’s where the Slingbox SOLO comes in.

In December of 2011 the International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled in favor of Apple for placing a ban on the U.S. import of multiple HTC smartphones. It was the first major exclusion ban of its kind, and it all hinged on one Apple patent.

The HTC import ban went into effect on April 19, 2012, and the delay was meant to give HTC time to re-engineer around the infringing issues. HTC said it was going to have everything cleared and ready to go in time, but U.S. Customs has now halted the One X and Evo 4G LTE from crossing the border.

Apple CEO Tim Cook met with U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner at the U.S. Capitol today. The details of the meeting remain unknown, but Cook was likely sweet talking Boehner to pass the the tax holiday Apple wants so it can bring back billions in offshore cash at a low tax rate.

A certain indie film starring Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs has been the recipient of a ton of press lately, but that little film is being put together by an ragtag crew with no experience, based off a screenplay from an unknown writer. That film is probably going to suck, but the movie being put together by Sony Pictures should get everyone excited because they just hired one of the best screenwriters in Hollywood – Aaron Sorkin.

Announced back in December, Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode II is finally ready for prime time. The next iteration in the Sonic series includes our favorite blue mammal along with his furry friend Tails. The game launched on the PlayStation Network and Steam today but will hit the Google Play Store tomorrow and the App Store on Thursday.

We’ve figured out how to get the best prices on every piece of Apple gear you buy, and on the latest CultCast, we’ll tell you how, too.

Plus: our source within Apple has seen their secret new HDTV – we tell he told us.

And don’t miss our our reactions to what this insane Apple fan installed on his person.

Subscribe to the CultCast now on iTunes, and read on for our show notes!

In two days, hundreds of thousands of Verizon customers will be able to experience the blazing speeds of 4G LTE thanks to another major rollout. Verizon continues to leave its competitors in the dust and come May 17, Verizon will have blanketed 258 markets with its 4G LTE network. This week’s expansion lists a few areas we’ve already told you about, and includes 28 new markets as well as 11 expansion markets. If you live in any of the following areas, get ready for a nice speed boost:

May is Mobile Management Month at Cult of Mac, where we will be profiling a different mobile management company every weekday. You can find all previous entries here and read our Mobile Management manifesto here.

Notify has been providing a range of enterprise mobile solutions for quite some time. In addition to its NotifyMDM mobile management solution, the company produces a push messaging solution known as NotifyLink as well as NotifySync, an Exchange ActiveSync solution for BlackBerry devices. NotifyMDM supports the core mobile management needs with a focus on user self-servicing options and on providing comprehensive device use information.

An official ESPN app could eventually make its way to the Apple TV set-top box, according to a new report today. Bloomberg says that Disney, parent company of ESPN, is open to offering Apple digital access to its sports network for Apple TV users. While a deal is by no means confirmed, it appears that the companies could be in talks to add an ESPN Apple TV app in the future.

The Socialmatic Instagram camera concept caused quite the buzz after we posted it last week. After making the rounds on all kinds of blogs and design sites, the concept’s creator, Antonio De Rosa of ADR Studios, decided there was enough interest to try and turn the dream into reality.

De Rosa has launched a campaign on Indiegogo to raise funds for turning the Socialmatic into a real-life camera. The concept is based entirely around Instagram and the idea of physicalizing the way we share on social networks. Will the camera actually see the light of day? That’s up to you.

While there’s been a lot of speculation about Apple’s plans to enter the HDTV market, most of the discussion – including information from our source who has seen the device – has focused on the device itself. The form factor, pricing, manufacturing options, interface, input and remote control mechanisms, which iOS and OS X technologies could be leveraged in a TV – all these are key elements to the story of an iTV or Apple HDTV or whatever the device might be called.

These areas of speculation, however, don’t ask the most critical question: Will people buy an Apple HDTV?

According to tech research firm Strategy Analytics, the answer is yes – and it’s a pretty emphatic yes for iPhone owners.

For a very brief moment in time, the Nokia 900 reigned supreme in the eyes of Siri. When asked what the best smartphone ever is, Siri replied back that the Nokia 900 4G was the best. Apple fixed that problem pretty quickly and made sure that Siri now replies that the iPhone 4S is lord of all smartphones. Now Nokia is pissed and says that Apple is conspiring against the truth, and if Siri’s opinions on smartphones can’t be trusted, what can? It’ll be anarchy.

We all know that Pixar, the revolutionary computer animation house Steve Jobs helped build in his wilderness years, makes the Toy Story films at least in part on Macs, alongside other Unix-based machines.

Back when Toy Story 2 was being made in the late 90s, though, the Unix-based nature of the machines Pixar uses for their animation almost led to the complete destruction of the film when an employee accidentally used the “rm *” command on the machine the film was being stored on. In seconds, all of Toy Story 2 was lost: a year’s work of other thirty people.

Not to worry though. A Mac-loving mom she had at home saved the day, and made sure that Toy Story 2 reached theaters on time to delight a generation of kids and adults alike.

I have this friend who loves to send me photos. Pictures of his kid, his town, stuff he finds amusing in stores, and the like (bottles of wine). Problem is, they all come in sideways. This means that the photos are smaller than my iPhone screen as well as tilted. If I tilt my iPhone to the landscape view, the photos fill the screen, but are still on their side. It’s been frustrating. Imagine my joy when I found today’s tip on rotating images right on my iPhone.

Our iPhones, iPad and Macs all come equipped to pump out music and movies, and yet the built-in speakers are merely adequate. Depending on whether you travel or stay at home, whether you use a Mac or an iPod to listen to your music, or whether you live in the countryside or cooped up with easy-to-rile neighbors, there is a speaker just for you. And here’s our list of the best.

Available in different sounding flavors, the Vox amPlug (about $40) is a teensy bit of amp that plugs right into your guitar. Add to that your favorite headphones, and you’re ready to jam-out from wherever you sit.

The Ultimate Startup Bundle is the latest Cult of Mac Deals offer – and it has all the tools you need to create and launch your website. Now we only have 200 of these, so if you’ve ever thought about building and launching a professional website then there’s no time like the present to get going.

This killer bundle contains 9 top quality tools that will give you everything you need to create and launch a professional website – and you get all of them for only $59!

Facebook’s iOS app is terrible.

That’s not a matter of opinion: it’s fact. It’s a festering pile of an app, with an average 2 star rating on the US iTunes App Srore.

The app’s slow. The notifications don’t work. The whole thing’s buggy. In every way imaginable, if you open Mobile Safari and type in facebook.com, you’ll have a better experience.

How could a company like Facebook that sees so much of its traffic come from mobile sources release such a terrible, unuseable app? And why hasn’t it gotten better?

This is kind of neat. Back in early 2011, Apple patented an idea for a way for drivers to control the tunes playing on their iPhones or iPods without taking their hands off the wheel.

The solution? A tiny little ring that fits on your steeling wheel with an iPod clickwheel on top.

Google’s latest Stable release of Chrome now includes the ability to sync tabs across multiple devices. As long as you are signed into Chrome, you’ll now have the ability to take your tabs with you when switching between work, home, mobile (with Chrome for Android beta), etc. Accessing them is quick and easy thanks to the new “Other devices” menu located on the New Tab page, and even the back and forward buttons will work, allowing you to pick up browsing right where you left off.

Do we need any more notepad apps for OS X? Of course we do, what a foolish question. We always need more notepad apps. But if a newcomer to the notepad app scene (what, you didn’t know there was a notepad app scene? tut tut) wants to make any impact, it needs to be really, really good at what it does.

NotesTab Pro is one such newcomer, and although it has some appealing features, it doesn’t offer enough to make it stand out from its rivals.

The iTV. The Apple HDTV. SiriTV.

Whatever you want to call it, there’s a lot of talk out there about how Apple is going to revolutionize the living room experience by releasing their own proper television set.

There’s reason enough to be skeptical of these reports. From the industry’s notoriously low margins — Sony’s losing billions on their television business — to the fact that consumers simply don’t upgrade their TVs like they do their smartphones, does it even make sense that Apple would want to release their own television set?

Sure, Steve Jobs said he had “cracked” the TV problem before he died, but who’s to say that he wasn’t talking about Cupertino’s existing set-top box, the Apple TV, a $99 puck that anyone can afford and that slurps up streaming content from the web or the iPhones, iPads and (with Mountain Lion) Macs already in the home?

I’ll say it. The Apple TV is not enough, and Apple absolutely must release a revolutionary television set in the next two years.

Why? Because no matter how popular the Apple TV becomes, it will never be essential.

Only in the world of technology could a company get away with calling these earbuds “wireless.” The product is called the BackBeat Go, and the company is Plantronics, and to anybody with more than zero eyes, it’s clear that they are connected by a wire.

Not so, according to the product blurb: “No wires, no hassle, no compromise,” it says. To which we might add “no brains.” Even better, just a few lines later you can read this sentence: “Inline controls let you pause music to take a call, change volume, or skip tracks.”

Mobile marketing and advertising firm Velti recently released its April Data report, which includes several interesting and surprising details including AT&T’s lead as U.S. iPhone provider.  The most surprising piece of information in the report, however, is that adoption rates for the new iPad appear to have peaked and slowed.

The BBC is planning to take home the gold in Olympic coverage this year as they prepare to provide live coverage of every London 2012 sport from every venue throughout the day.

“We will be bringing live coverage of every Olympic Sport from every venue, through a combination of BBC One and BBC Three and up to 24 simultaneous streams live online on PC, mobile, tablet or connected TV

BBC has big plans for its various sports apps on both mobile and smartTVs. Custom built BBC Sport apps for Android and iOS will allow users to watch live video on the go and ensure they never miss a moment.