Cult of Mac

Camping out for a new Apple product is a time-honored tradition. Outsiders think it’s crazy, and even some insiders do — couldn’t you preorder it this year — but waiting for the product is just part of the reason you do it. It’s really about the camaraderie, the friendship, the adventure.

Craig Fox, organizer of the upcoming JailbreakCon, is roughing it on the streets of London outside Apple’s flagship Regent Street Store. Even if you’ve never considered waiting in line for a new Apple product, his account of the experience might just change your mind.

Here’s his report:

With your new iPad pre-order ready to be loaded onto tomorrow’s truck for delivery, you’re probably pretty excited right about now. But maybe not as excited as some MLB players, coaches, and scouts. Apple’s device allows them to identify tactics and improve their game, and scout for new talent. It’s also great for keeping in touch with their families while they’re away from home, and they’re expecting the third-generation device to be the best iPad yet.

Virtually everyone who’s ever used an Apple product has an Apple ID. This user account for all things Apple is most commonly used with the iTunes Store and the iOS and Mac App Stores. It’s used to both authorize purchases and to allow you to access content or run apps after they’re downloaded. Apple’s philosophy is that every person should have their own Apple ID and that each of us should use our individual Apple ID (and only that Apple ID) on each of our devices – iPads, iPhones, iPods, Macs, even PC’s running iTunes or other Apple software.

That’s a great concept, but it creates a big challenge when iOS devices are used in business or school environments. When someone configures an iOS device for an employee or student with a selection of apps and other content (like iBooks 2 textbooks), they need to use an Apple ID. But once that device is deployed, the end user may need or want to purchase additional apps or other materials.

This is often a stumbling block for business-owned devices. And it’s something that Apple has finally begun to address with Apple Configurator.

Weather Pro for iPad has just been updated with hi-definition maps. I know what you’re thinking: Are those dorks at Cult of Mac really going to write a post about every app that gets retina display support? Well, maybe, but this update actually brings something that can make use of all those extra pixels: Super-detailed weather maps.

In their normal fashion as dissectors and vivisectionists of the gadget world, the fine ladies and gents over at iFixIt — who flew all the way to Australia to get a literal crack at the new iPad early — have just opened Apple’s latest tablet up, as reported by their Twitter feed:

The first legit-purchased, legit-owned iPad 3 is now also the first legit-opened iPad… in the world.

Stay tuned. We’ll let you know what mysteries they find inside.

There are a number of half-baked third-party email clients for the iPhone, but until now, there hasn’t been a real replacement for the iPhone’s built-in Mail app. Sparrow for iPhone finally changes that. It’s crammed full of terrific features that make Apple’s solution look pretty amateur, and yet it’s still incredibly easy to use. In fact, I think it’s just as spectacular as Sparrow for the Mac.

In the latest patent war saga, a Dutch court ruled that Samsung cannot assert 3G patents against Apple products using Qualcomm’s baseband chips — as Samsung has a licensing deal with the U.S. chipmaker — thus denying their bid to ban the sales of the iPhone and iPad in the Netherlands. However, Samsung didn’t consider the ruling a complete loss as the Hague court also ruled that Samsung could seek damages over the use of Intel chips. While Apple doesn’t use Intel chips, this gives Samsung ammunition against those that do.

When Lion was released last summer, there was a big outcry because Apple had decided to kill off Rosetta, the emulation engine that allowed Macs with Intel processors to run apps designed for Macs with Power PC processors. Apple’s position was that it had made the switch to Intel and stopped selling Power PC Macs five years earlier and it was time for users and developers to move on. Most developers did move on to releasing universal apps that could run on Macs with either processor or that were Intel-only.

One company that dragged its heals was Intuit, maker of the popular Quicken personal finance app. When Lion shipped, users of Quicken 2007, the most recent version, were faced with options that really weren’t that good: not upgrade to Lion, install a stripped down version called Quicken Essentials that was built for Intel Macs, run the Windows version of Quicken, or switch to a different app.

I thought it was impossible to do anything dorkier than wearing a Bluetooth headset all day long, because you’re, like, so important that you’ll be getting a call any minute now. Well, it turns out that I was wrong. Check out the Tomko Transceiver for iPhone, a plug-in handset that makes your iPhone work like a CB radio.

Add this to your list of things Apple is worth more than. As the Zero Hedge blog notes, “A company whose value is dependent on the continued success of two key products, now has a larger market capitalization (at $542 billion), than the entire US retail sector (as defined by the S&P 500).” Nuff said.

Every single thing about the new iPad is more power hungry than the iPad 2. The Retina Display requires more power to drive its double resolution display. The LTE capability requires more battery to suck in faster mobile data speeds. Even the doubled RAM capacity uses more electricity.

Despite all of this, though, the new iPad has the same great battery life as the iPad 2: 10 hours of battery using 3G, 9 hours battery using LTE. Apple’s achieved this extraordinary feat by packing almost twice the battery capacity into the same space.

That’s great news when you’re around town. But it comes at a cost: charging the new iPad to full is a total bitch.

For the first time ever, Apple stock briefly touched, then dropped below, the price of $600 per share. Making that milestone even more impressive is the fact that AAPL just reached $500 per share for the first time a month ago.

Mark my words, Woz is right: Apple’s going to reach $1000 per share become the world’s first trillion dollar company.

[via MacRumors]

I’ve been obsessing over my iPad pre-order so much since I placed it that I’m checking it tracking status almost hourly. I know it’s not going to arrive early, but I can’t help myself.

If you’re like me and you live in the U.K., you may have noticed that your iPad is listed as “out for delivery” today. But here’s why it won’t be arriving on your doorstep early.

Before our full review next week, here’s a great little how-to guide on using geotagging in Lightroom 4. Adobe’s photo-editing and cataloging app has caught up with iPhoto and Aperture in its latest version, and you can now view any photos with embedded GPS co-ordinates on an in-app map. This means any of your iPhone photos can be browsed by location, which is a surprisingly useful tool.

But what if you want to reverse tag your photos? Say your camera doesn’t have GPS, but you have a track log recorded on a GPS device or with an iPhone app. How do you put this data together in a useful way? Below, Adobe’s Terry White shows us how.

Oh Lord, after a dozen years, it’s finally come: Blizzard Entertainment has finally slapped a release date on their much-anticipated horror and fantasy themed hack-and-slash RPG, Diablo III. And that magic date?

If you live outside the U.S and UK, you’ll find that the easiest and quickest way to get your favorite TV shows onto your iPad is via BitTorrent. But until now, you had to do some heavy post-download processing to make the XVID files play on your iPad, or at least use third-party software to play it.

Now, many BitTorrent groups have switched to the x264 MP4 format for most new releases. That’s good news for iPad and Apple TV users, but there’s even more entertainment to be had from this story: The BitTorrent pirates are crowing about the switch and even threatening to boycott the downloads.

Yes, you read that right. Pirates are threatening to boycott illegal TV show downloads.

I have to admit it. I take a lot of screenshots here when trying to illustrate these daily tips. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to name them something more useful, say, like “Cult Of Mac Tips?” Well, it turns out there is a way to do that, requiring only a dip into the Terminal app and some copy and pasting. Ready?

You only need to look at the bloodshot eyes, crunchy appearance and tossled hair of famed PS3 and iPhone hacker George “geohot” Hotz to realize that this is a mind which works best when jerkied in the cannabinoid vapours inhaled from a tightly packed magic jaybone. He’s a viper from birth, and we wouldn’t have him any other way.

But the cops would. That’s why they arrested him for cannabis possession while driving to SXSW to deliver a speech on hacking.

After a brief moment in the iTunes in the iTunes App Store sun last week, Markdown text editor ByWord has officially arrived on your iPad and iPhone. It’s a companion to the excellent OS X version of ByWord, and is one of a growing number of apps to sync using iCloud.

With all the attention deservedly going to the new iPad, it can be easy to forget that Apple also launched a third-gen Apple TV set-top box at its March 7th media event. The little hockey puck included 1080p HD video support and a faster processor, but that’s basically it. Not much has changed since the last Apple TV.

Apple has given early review units of the new Apple TV to certain publications to review. Here’s what they have to say:

The new iPad uses blazing fast LTE 4G networking to let you stream YouTube faster than you can say “Tim Cook’s your uncle,” but you still can’t use the tablet to make FaceTime calls over 4G or 3G. Calls fail to connect when the third-gen iPad isn’t connected to a WiFi network, just like they do on the iPhone.

iPhone users have been hammering for FaceTime over 3G since the video calling technology was introduced by Steve Jobs and Jony Ive back in 2010, but Apple has yet to flip the switch. Due to the data-heavy nature of video calls, the carriers are likely to blame.

The highly-anticipated iPhone email client called Sparrow is now available in the App Store. The app costs $2.99 and promises an enhanced emailing experience. Flagship features include a unique and gorgeous interface, a threading system for messages, enhanced contact integration, better search, and more. If you’re ready to try something besides the default Mail app, Sparrow is definitely worth checking out.

Apple always gives a few select media outlets a sneak preview of their newest products so they can post their reviews before the rest of us peons get to own their magical device. The embargo on reviews for the new iPad just lifted this evening, and so far everyone’s impressed with the retina display and 4G speeds, but is there anything they’re disappointed with in the new iPad?

Here’s what the first reviewers are saying:

The arrival of the new iPad will be upon us in less than two days. Selling your old iPad to supplement the cost of the new iPad can be a quick and easy way to save money. Last week we published a guide on how to get the most money for your iPad, but it looks like another option has just emerged. Apple has updated their Reuse and Recycling program to include trade in values for the iPad 2 which will give consumers up to a $320 gift card to trade in their used iPads.

One of the first things most IT folks will think about Apple Configurator is that it’s pretty limited compared to some of the mobile device management suites on the market (including Apple’s Profile Manager in Lion Server). MDM suites are designed to make device management as easy, automatic, and wireless as possible. Most include robust monitoring and reporting features – virtually all can use Apple’s push notification system to update a managed device at any time.

Configurator, on the other hand, requires connecting each iOS device to a Mac using a USB cable to perform any administrative tasks like configuring device settings, assigning a device to a user, installing apps, or updating iOS. That means that Configurator isn’t appropriate for a lot of businesses or workplace situations. Yet, for some organizations, Configurator is a more ideal tool than most MDM suites because of its hands-on approach.

So, what kinds of environments is Apple Configurator suited to?