Before and after. Instagram's Lux fixes shadows and adds contrast. Photo Charlie Sorrel
Instagram 2.1, which launched at the end of last week, has fixed up the frankly horrible interface of v2.0, and added in some significant new features. Other things — like the proliferation of scantily-clad ladies and (normally-clad) pets in the “popular” section — remain just the same.
Yup, it’s finally happened: buoyed by the imminent launch of the iPad 3, Apple (AAPL) stock has just hit a historic high of over $500.00 a share, and now is worth a $466.29 Billion, over $70 billion more than the world’s second most valuable company, Exxon Mobil.
That’s amazing, but there’s still plenty of room to grow, believe it or not. In fact, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster believes that Apple could go as high as $1000 per share, at which point, every man, woman and child on this Earth will be an Apple employee, grown to order in special chemical vats in Brazil and China, but designed, as ever, in Cupertino, California.
Like an ugly duckling transforming into a beautiful swan, VLC 2.0 for Mac also comes in black. Image Felix Kühne/Flickr
VLC, the cross-platform play-everything-and-we-mean-everything video client is about to go 2.0 on the Mac. And amongst all the new features is one very welcome change: A completely re-designed interface that makes it look a lot more at home on Apple hardware than the open-source v1.x ever did.
U.S. retailer Meijer has begun slashing the price of Apple’s iPad 2 as rumors continue to claim that its successor will be unveiled early next month. The 16GB Wi-Fi only model is now available for $429, with $70 off its original price, and that price will run until the retailer shifts its remaining stock.
Better than flowers; worse than a weekend away. The pink iPhone case makes an almost ideal Valentine's Day gift
As a nerd, it’s almost certain that you still haven’t bought a Valentine’s Day gift for your significant other (heck, as a nerd it’s not even certain you have a significant other). An inkling at the back of your mind tells you that flowers are too obvious, but your geek brain can’t conceive of any romantic gift that isn’t also practical. Fear not. We have news of the most romantic (and practical) gift money can buy: the Pink Little Black Book for iPhone.
Steve Jobs was obsessed with making the Mac run silently, even going so far as to tell Mac hardware designers to make the internal fans kick-in at a much higher temperature than contemporary PCs. It seems strange, then, that in this zen quest for quietness, the first thing that happens when you turn a Mac on is here a loud bootup chime. If you’d like to get rid of that chime and boot-up as silently as a submarine running deep, it’s easy, thanks to this cute little app.
There was a certain irony that was almost comical last week when RIM CEO Thorsten Heins announced to 2000 BlackBerry developers in Europe that the company was “ready to compete” because that statement came during a week when the BlackBerry maker lost to high profile enterprise clients – both Halliburton and NOAA will be dropping the BlackBerry support and replacing existing handsets with iPhones.
The statement became even more ironic, though with a tragic rather than comic tone, over the weekend as it became widely known that one major travel company that it was canceling all plans future updates on the BlackBerry platform as well as terminating technical/user support for BlackBerry users.
Spotify has issued an update to its hugely popular iPhone app that introduces the ability to stream music at an “extreme” 320kbps — the same quality Spotify Premium members enjoy from the Spotify applications for Mac and Windows.
After having its tablet banned in one Chinese city today for using the iPad name without permission, Apple could be about to enter into another dispute if it names its television set the “iTV.” Britain’s biggest commercial broadcaster ITV has warned Apple not to use its name for the second time.
Retailers in Shijiazhuang, China, have halted sales of Apple’s iPad after it was claimed that the Cupertino company does not have the rights to the iPad trademark in the country. Proview Technology, which believed it still owns the iPad name, is seeking $38 million in compensation from Apple and seems to have secured a ban in at least one city as Chinese authorities begin confiscating the device.
A “credible” Target employee who is “intimately acquainted with the retail giant’s web presence” has confirmed that Apple’s iPad 3 will launch in early March.
Mac OS X comes with a nice selection of applications, but sometimes you may want to get rid of one. Well, if you’ve tried to delete many of these apps, you’ll notice that you probably don’t have permission to. In this video, I’ll show you how to get around this limitation.
Apple VP and iCloud guru Eddy Cue recently accepted a Special Merit GRAMMY Award for the late Steve Jobs. Cue gave an acceptance speech on behalf of Apple and the Jobs family, saying that “Steve was focused on bringing music to everyone in innovative ways.” Cue worked with Jobs closely for 15 years.
The GRAMMY was awarded to Jobs for his contributions to music with the iPod and iTunes Store.
The 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards will be held tonight at 8:00 PM at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. You can stream the event live, including the pre-show this afternoon, for free on your mobile devices.
Thanks to the free GRAMMY Live app in the App Store, you can stream today’s festivities to your iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.
With Apple expected to announce the iPad 3 during the first week of March, rumors regarding the upcoming tablet have reached a fever pitch. Little attention has been given to the Apple TV, besides the occasional ‘iTV’ rumor and pundit speculation.
Supply shortages across several key retailers suggest that Apple’s set-top box will be seeing a significant update within the next few weeks.
Still struggling to think of things to do this Valentine’s Day? Maybe you haven’t even got a date yet. But don’t worry, our app guide is here to help. We’ve compiled a list of great iOS apps that will make you the perfect valentine on February 14. They’ll help you find a date, book a table for dinner, buy movie tickets, and even send flowers. All you’ll need is your iPhone.
Samsung is going all-out to promote the Galaxy Note as the company’s new iPhone killer.
The now-famous Superbowl ad imagines a scenario in which iPhone fans waiting in line outside Apple stores for the next phone see a guy using a Galaxy Note with a pen. They’re stunned as they realize that he can draw on maps and pictures using the phone’s stylus. So overwhelmed with the revelation that one might use a pen with a phone, than they bust out of the line and erupt in a display of unbridled enthusiasm all over the city.
We’ve had a great time this week seeing everyone be so enthusiastic about the Twitter Celebration Giveaway. Five excited winners took home some excellent printers and monitors from HP. We want to give a big thanks to all our readers who participated in the giveaway and who have supported us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, and even Pinterest. Also, a huge thank you to HP for being such a great company to team up with and providing all the prizes.
Instagram has been updated to version 2.1 in the App Store. The update brings several improvements, including a revamped interface. More photo editing features have been added, like the “Lux” editing tool and the new “Sierra” filter.
As Google’s proposed acquisition of Motorola Mobility waits for approval from the courts, Apple has fired back at Motorola in the U.S. over a licensing agreement with chipset-maker Qualcomm.
Motorola recently sued Apple over wireless technology in its iOS devices with a patent that Apple is now using to cite the licensing violation with Qualcomm. The retaliation from Apple is meant to suffocate any patent violation claims that Motorola was asserting before to the courts.
Starting Sunday AT&T customers will be faced with a $36 fee for upgrading to a new device. This is a 100% increase from the current fee of $18! You ask yourself why, why would AT&T impose a 100% increase on a fee so outlandish that the majority of carriers wave? I say it’s to make up for the 4 billion dollar loss they took on the failed T-Mobile merger. They say it’s because:
According to a new report, iOS web traffic has surpassed Mac OS X for the first time in history. iOS market share has grown nearly 50% over the last 6 months, and Apple’s mobile products are now driving more web traffic while the Mac’s traffic share has declined.
Laaaaaaaaaaadies and Gentlemen, welcome to Friday Night Fights, a new series of weekly deathmatches between two no-mercy brawlers who will fight to the death — or at least agree to disagree — about which is better: Apple or Google, iOS or Android?
After this week’s topic, someone’s going to be spitting teeth. Our question: What’s Better For App Stores, Walled Garden Or Open? Apple vets every app released on the iOS and Mac App Stores, but Google lets anything in, removing apps only if they violate their terms. Which is better for developers and consumers?
In one corner, we have the 900 pound gorilla, Cult of Mac; in the opposite corner, wearing the green trunks, we have the plucky upstart, Cult of Android!
Place your bets, gentlemen! This is going be a bloody one.
One of the best things about Apple’s iPod nano is its radio app that allows you to listen to live radio anytime, anywhere. Unfortunately, we don’t get that feature with the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad… unless we use third-party apps.
TuneIn Radio allows you to listen live to over 50,000 stations around the world, pause and rewind your favorite shows, share stations and songs on social networks, and a whole lot more. Here’s how to get started.
This week’s Microsoft announcement of the details of Windows 8 on ARM-powered tablets raises a big question: Will Windows 8 tablets based on ARM or running on more tradition x86 hardware blunt the iPad’s surge in business and enterprise environments?
A few years ago, it would have been easy to say that Windows 8 devices would become the defacto standard in business, particularly for large companies with Microsoft-centric IT infrastructure. But conventional wisdom like that has broken down when it comes to workplace technology in the face of BYOD programs and the consumerization of IT trends. In today’s environment, there are many factors that could tilt the playing field in favor of either Microsoft or Apple.