Cult of Mac

Here’s a treat for Indiana Jones fans. It’s called Temple Run, it’s free on the iOS App Store, and it gives you the chance to relive your Indy treasure-hunting dreams.

While Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices are susceptible to cracks and smashes — just like any other smartphone or tablet — you’ll be surprised by how strong the Gorilla Glass that’s used on each of these devices really is. And it’s about to get even stronger, with Corning set to announce Gorilla Glass 2 at CES in Las Vegas next week, which is said to be even lighter and stronger than its predecessor.

DigiTimes has revived speculation that Apple will release two new iPads this year, citing “industry sources in Taiwan” who claim we’ll see an iPad 3 complete with a Retina display in March, and a much improved iPad 4 with “killer applications” in October.

Antonio De Rosa, a designer for ADR Studios, has created a gorgeous next-generation iPhone concept that he’s calling the “iPhone SJ.” This work of beauty features an edge-to-edge capacitive touchscreen, 10 megapixel camera, A6 processor, and a polycarbonate body that’s about as light as you can imagine.

In De Rosa’s fictional world, the iPhone SJ would be the best smartphone on the planet. And based off his concept work, I would have to agree.

Despite all our 21st-century technical wizardry, one of the easiest and least expensive ways to get a very basic idea of physical health is through a metric that’s been used for a very long time: body weight.

The Withings WiFi Body Scale ($160) takes this concept to the next level in many ways, including allowing you access to all your data on a gorgeously designed iOS app. It also adds an even more important metric, body fat percentage, and goes a long way to erasing many of the pitfalls using a simple scale can lead to — and it does this all while remaining incredibly easy to use. In fact, it might be the most effective tool I’ve used to keep healthy.

What’s this? Android news on Cult of Mac?! Who the hell cares?! Maybe you don’t, maybe you do. Point is: these are a few of the popular topics going on in the Android world today. Maybe you’d like to know what the competition is up to, or perhaps your aunt received a Kindle Fire she needs to update. Regardless of the reason, having a resource such as Cult of Android allows you to learn more about what’s going on in the ecosystem powered by the world’s leading mobile OS.

What do we know about the iPad 3? It seems almost definite at this point that it will be slightly thicker than its predecessor, feature an A6 chip and a Retina Display when it is released in late March or April, but if iLounge‘s Jeremy Horwitz’s Twitter account is anything to go on, it might also be packing much better cameras.

I’m wearing a big shimmering wrap on my head with a jewel in the middle. There’s incense going, and I’m now ready to make these CES 2012 camera predictions: new pro DSLRs from Nikon and (possibly) Canon will reign supreme; it will be another good year for small mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras, like the new Nikon 1; and in-point-and-shoots, I see more of the same blah.

I also see this year’s PMA show (Photo Marketing Association) being combined into CES, bringing with it imaging accessories galore — but that’s not a prediction — it’s on PMA’s website.

Google’s button cute VP of Location and Local Services, Marissa Mayer, has long been a self-avowed Apple fan. Heck, she once nominated Steve Jobs as the 2010 Time Magazine Person of the Year, and now, she’s openly singing the praises of Apple’s Airport range of wireless routers on her Google+ account.

Adding contact information to your phone can be a tedious task, especially with devices like the iPhone, which allow you to add a whole lot more than just a name and a phone number. But there is one quick and easy way to add missing information to your address book without even touching your device’s virtual keyboard: Syncing your contacts with Facebook.

If you’re a Facebook user — and who isn’t these days? — and you have the official Facebook app installed on your device, you can add birthdays, URLs, and even photos to your address book in just a few taps.

Jeff Broderick, the designer behind the beautiful iOS Settings Home screens shortcuts we detailed weeks ago, has released a new web app for easily sharing a secured network with multiple users. QuickWiFi is a simple web interface that lets you distribute your network credentials with others via a verified WiFi profile.

With QuickWiFi, you no longer need to give everyone on your network a SSID and password. You can create a unique URL that others can use to gain access to your network — no password required. If you want to keep your network secure from the outside but also offer an easy way for your friends to join, this is the perfect tool.

With the death of the venerable XServe blade server at the beginning of last year, Apple has essentially abandoned the market for corporate servers. If you want to run a Mac server, Apple recommends the Mac mini with Lion Server, which is only really a viable option for small businesses.

Over at MacMagazine, reader Joseph Arthur had a great idea: why not redesign the Mac Pro slightly so they are stackable?

It’s a cute idea, and I get a kick out of the visual, but two problems: the Mac Pro looks like it’ll be killed off sooner rather than later, and the Mac Pro solution leads to the same problem the Mac mini solution had, in that centers can’t fit the machines in their existing blade racks. Still, pretty ingenious.

If you thought pulling a rabbit out of your hat was cutting-edge magic, you haven’t talked to Apple CEO Tim Cook lately. Give him three months, and Cook can convert 300,000 Apple shares into almost $100 million dollars. Pretty neat trick, huh? In fact, Cook leads all Silicon Valley executives in the largest cash haul from company stock, according to just-released data.

If you’re reading us from Asia, great news: the Asian continent’s own answer to Black Friday starts tomorrow, January 6th, and as rumored. Apple’s now having a Lunar New Year Sale to celebrate, offering discounts on most of their popular products in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

The discounts are basically similar to those U.S. Apple Store customers saw in November, with discounts of between 6-8% on iPads, 10% discounts on iPods, and between 5-10% off all MacBooks.

If you’re in one of the aforementioned countries and want to start the New Year right, get hopping: this sale will only continue for 24 hours.

There’s nothing like a family fight and one may be brewing between Android creator Google and the Kindle Fire, one of the few Android-based tablets able to lay a finger on the iPad’s overwhelming success. Although unconfirmed, a report suggests the Internet giant is planning to unveil its own tablet in early 2012 that could undercut Amazon’s price advantage. It brings tears of joy to the eyes of Apple fans.

Kanye West is not known for his modesty. He once appeared on a Rolling Stone cover portraying Jesus wearing a crown of thorns. In 2004, he stormed out of the American Music Awards after not winning Best New Artist, saying “I was definitely robbed… I was the best new artist of the year.” Even President Obama has called Kanye West a “jackass.”

With all that in mind… hey guys! Guess who just declared himself the next Steve Jobs?

With billions in the bank, sometimes it is cheaper to pay a few bucks rather than spend time in court. That apparently is the logic behind a $5 million settlement announced in a patent-infringement lawsuit filed against Apple. Despite little chance of a courtroom win, a Taiwan-based touchpad maker is proclaiming victory.

I’d have put my house and children on Apple suing the Chinese toy manufacturer which produces the incredibly realistic Steve Jobs action figure we reported on earlier this week. And just as expected, it’s threatening to do just that.

In Icon has reportedly received a letter from Apple’s legal team which states it must stop producing and selling the 12-inch $99 figure — which sports Steve’s iconic black turtleneck, blue jeans and white sneakers — immediately, or face legal action. Unfortunately for In Icon, it has no intention of quitting.

There are many excellent and original ways to propose to your significant other. For example, I once proposed to a girlfriend on a tethered skydive by shouting into her ear at a dangerously low 1500 feet: “Will you marry me and should I pull this ripcord?” To this day, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more enthusiastically (some might even say hysterically) shrieked affirmation of love.

That’s one way to do it. Of course, a less dramatic (and some might argue, more romantic) way to do it, if your girlfriend is an iOS gamer, is to reach out to the developer of her favorite game and ask him to bake a wedding proposal into his app for you.

Despite a message posted to Twitter by Pod2g earlier this week, suggesting an untethered jailbreak for the iPhone 4S was less than a week away from public release, a new blog post detailing the iOS hacker’s process indicates the exploit could still be weeks away yet.

Pod2g has revealed that his new exploit requires a developer account to inject the necessary files to your device, and until he finds a way around this, the hack will not see a public release.

The prevailing Wall Street consensus is that Apple will report later this month iPhone sales of around 29 million handsets. But one expert is questioning that figure, suggesting official analysts could be way too conservative amid yet another historic sales period for the Cupertino, Calif. tech giant.

Look at that big ugly thing. It’s not pretty, it’s boring, and it’s not even all that protective — leaving the top and bottom ends of your iPhone exposed to the elements. But despite these insufficiencies, its manufacturers will charge you $10,000 for the thing simply because it’s made from solid gold.

Hey kids, NASA needs your help. And your iPhone.

Just how important is the iPhone to U.S. carriers? Verizon’s financial chief provided some insight Wednesday, announcing the provider sold 4.2 million Apple smartphones during the holiday fourth quarter. While the October launch of the iPhone 4S likely spurred many of those purchases, the cost is a smaller profit in exchange for hefty data contracts and a piece of the Apple halo.

Here’s a neat and simple trick that lets you forward several emails at once if you use the OS X Mail application.