GarageBand’s velocity-sensitive drums and keyboards — which use the iPad’s accelerometers to know how hard you hit the screen — are nothing short of amazing. But just as you wouldn’t want to write a novel on a virtual keyboard, neither would a musician want to perform by trying to hit the little on-screen keys.

Enter The Carbon 49, a USB MIDI keyboard controller for the iPad. The controller, from Samson, connects to the tablet using your camera connection kit and has a slot up top to keep the iPad snug and safe as you play.

Are BYOD programs really all that common? According to a new report from staffing and recruiting firm Robert Half, the answer is that they aren’t. In fact, according to the report many CIOs and IT departments don’t allow employees to use personal devices. That runs contrary to a lot of other data that shows the iPhone, iPad, and other personal technologies are increasingly finding their ways into the office.

The immediate judgement might be to throw out this report or others because of the disconnect between them. That wouldn’t be a wise course of action, however. In fact, putting this report and another recent study that we covered last week side by side indicates that many CIOs may be dangerously unaware of what’s going on in their companies.

Up until Mountain Lion, OS X’s “Cat” codenames kept on evolving from Cheetah to Puma to Jaguar to Panther to Tiger to Leopard. Once Lion hit, it seemed Apple had peaked, with no bigger lions to choose from, but then Cupertino surprised everyone with Mountain Lion.

Where to next, then? As the brilliant webcomic XKCD makes clear, there’s not a lot of good cat names yet, once you count out code names that have already been tech products, like Lynx or Ocelot. OS X Housecat? Please.

I’ll take OS X Saber-Toothed Jungle Cat though. Yes please.

Source: XKCD
Via: Gizmodo]

When snapping digital photos with our cameras and phones, it’s easy to forget what’s actually happening inside to get the light from your subject into the camera, and then up on its way to Instagram. So, if you ever wondered how a CCD sensor actually works, and how light is turned into electricity and shifted off the sensor, watch this great video by Engineer Guy Bill Hammack.

If you’ve ever clicked on the Ping menu next to a song you have selected in iTunes, you’ll have noticed the option to Like or Post via Ping. You may have also noticed the option to show the song, the artist, or the genre of the currently selected song in the iTunes Music Store. But what if you want to find all the songs by that artist in your own iTunes library? Today’s tip shows you how, with a little bit of Terminal magic.

China Mobile, the world’s largest carrier with over 655 million subscribers, is in talks with Apple to bring the iPhone to its homegrown 3G (TD-SCDMA) network. The carrier’s chairman, Xi Guohua, confirmed the discussions during a shareholders meeting earlier this week.

Becoming an astronaut is every boy’s dream. Who doesn’t want to walk on the moon? Unfortunately that dream fades away for the vast majority of us when we grow up and realize NASA doesn’t employ overweight college dropouts. That’s when we take up blogging.

But thanks to an upcoming iOS app, we can all pop on a white suit and moon boots and dance with the satellites.

With so many contrasting rumors in recent weeks, it has been hard to predict whether or not Apple will increase the size of the display for its sixth-generation iPhone. But according to sources for The Wall Street Journal, the Cupertino company is preparing to break away from its existing 3.5-inch panels in favor of a display measuring “at least 4 inches diagonally.”

Try to not fall out of your chair or trip face-first into the pavement, because we have some breaking news for you: men love Zooey Deschanel. We’re not quite sure why, but it probably has something to do with her drop-dead gorgeousness and delightful quirkiness. Her hair is also very nice.

Apple knows that Zooey Deschanel is wonderful too, and you can see Zooey on TV talking to Siri in the newest ad for the iPhone 4S. Her spot with Apple runs alongside a similar iPhone ad starring the one and only Samuel L. Jackson.

According to new research, Apple’s latest ads are being received very well. Specifically, men between the age of 18-34 seem to really be showing interest in the Zooey ad. We wonder why.

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.