Here’s the official caption:
Filmmaker Spike Lee uses his iPad to photograph President Barack Obama as he greets guests at the National Action Network’s Keepers of the Dream awards gala in New York, N.Y., April 6, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza).
But I know you guys can do better than that.
Keep it clean, play nice and make our drizzly San Francisco Monday.
Photo Via White House Flickr stream
A new jailbreak tweak that’s just hit Cydia enhances your Tweetbot experience by introducing a ‘now playing’ feature – enabling you to tweet the music you’re currently listening to at the tap of a button.
The simple hack adds a new button to the window in which you compose your tweets – and one tap will insert the artist and the name of the song you’re listening to, in addition to the ‘#nowplaying’ hash tag.
While there are other third-party Twitter clients that support this feature straight from the App Store, there aren’t many to choose from. And if you’ve already fallen in love with Tweetbot, this tweak is a great add-on. It’s free to download – all you have to do is search for ‘Now Playing for Tweetbot‘ within Cydia.
We loved the Tweetbot app from Tapbots in our review, and this extra little bit of functionality makes it even greater for music lovers. It’s also another great example of the way in which applications can be improved with minor jailbreak tweaks.
[via iPhone Download Blog]
This week’s roundup of must-have iOS games includes the second episode in a series of five Back to the Future games from Telltale – with a brand new story for Marty and Doc.
We’ve also got Real Racing 2 HD – which has just been updated to feature dual-screen gaming, allowing you to connect your iPad to your HDTV and enjoy the ultimate racing game at 1080p.
Final Fantasy III also makes our list of favorites. This 90s classic has been around on the iPhone for a few weeks, but it now features new and improved 3D visuals and story sequences exclusive to the iPad.
Find out more about the games above and check out the rest of this week’s must-have’s – including Bunny the Zombie Slayer and NBA Jam – after the break!
High resolution artwork discovered in the latest build of Mac OS X Lion has generated rumors that Apple could be planning to bring a Retina display to the Mac. Preview 2 of Lion, which was released in late March, features icons in sizes up to 1024×1024, and a desktop background at a resolution of 3200×3200.
The new Lion wallpaper was discovered at the beginning of April by OSXDaily, and was noted for its ultra-high resolution which no Apple display has ever supported. The new icons – which are double the size of the current 512×512 Mac OS X icons – were discovered over the weekend by MacMagazine.com.br.
Considering there is currently no need for icons or wallpapers of this size, these discoveries would suggest Apple is working on bringing a better display to the Mac. MacRumors notes that Apple has built-in Support for HiDPI display modes in Lion:
Taking cues from iOS, Apple has reportedly built in support for what it calls “HiDPI display modes”. These HiDPI modes allow developers to supply 2x-enlarged images to support double-high resolution displays. Like the iPhone 4’s Retina Display, this means that user interface elements will remain the same size, but everything will be twice the resolution and therefore twice as detailed.
While a Retina display Mac would be pretty neat, I would much prefer one in my iPad first.
After 86 hours of downtime, the man behind Cydia has confirmed that the app is finally back online following an issue with Amazon’s EC2 cloud computing service. In a message posted to Twitter on Sunday night, Jay Freeman – better known as Saurik – wrote:
After 86 hours offline, Cydia is finally back! I’m eating some celebratory cake, and am looking forward to a night with >1.5 hours of sleep!
The downtime limited Cydia’s functionality for all users, and meant purchasing packages, using the Theme Centre, and managing Cydia accounts was near impossible.
Though some users may have had some success with accessing these services more recently, there were still intermittent periods of downtime as Amazon’s EC2 service slowly came back online.
All issues seem to have been completely ironed out now and Cydia is fully functioning for all. Hooray!
[via iPhone Download Blog]
Pictures taken by a source at Best Buy reveal that the retailer’s inventory database is currently listing an April 27th launch date for the elusive white iPhone 4. The device featured in the pictures is the GSM model – which supports the AT&T network – though it is expected that the CDMA model designed for Verizon will launch on the same day.
One report over the weekend claims that 16GB and 32GB models of the white iPhone 4 have already been shipped to Best Buy stores located throughout the U.S. – with around 10 16GB models on order for each store. Inventory numbers for the 32GB are currently unconfirmed.
The entire Internet is aflame, at least by. The standards of your average Saturday night, on word that Boy Genius Report has gotten ahold of a strange pre-production white iPhone 4 loaded up with admin and field-testing apps and running quite nicely on T-Mobile 3G. That’s quite newsworthy, as no shipping iPhone supports the obscure 1700 MHz AWS band that T-Mo rolls in the U.S.
There are many number of ways of faking this — I still find it hard to believe that you wouldn’t take some serious pictures of the hardware in search of differences from the existing iPhone 4 if you actually had it in your hands — but the various software screens are fairly convincing, including a number of apps I’ve heard are used in testing, but that mere mortals like us never see.
On the one hand, it makes sense for Apple to expand it’s reach to as many standards as possible now, especially since AT&T will likely own T-Mobile unless anti-trust regulators hold up the acquisition. On the other hand, the intent of that deal is to convert all of T-Mo’s towers to LTE fairly rapidly. It’s interesting.
Have a look through the gallery and let us know what you think — I’m actually most skeptical of Apple Connect. Would Apple really copy pattern unlock from Android?
Have you ever needed to insert a special character while typing a document in Mac OS X, but didn’t know how? Apple doesn’t provide an easily accessible way to view which keys generate which characters. Buried in System Preferences though, is a keyboard viewer which will let you figure out which keys give which symbols. This video will show you how to enable this function and use it to discover helpful key combinations.
Mowing the lawn is the outdoor equivalent to vacuuming your carpet: it has to be done regularly, and most people put it off. But now you don’t need a riding mower with dual-cupholders to impress the neighbors while being slovenly. Husqvarna has just introduced an iPhone app for remote deployment of their Automower robotic lawnmowers with GPS Communication Units.
The Automower works by following a thin wire laid on or under the grass. Using SMS Text Messaging, you can display the location of your mower on Google Maps, tell your machine when to start and stop, return for a charge, or check current operating status. There’s also a GPS Theft Tracking feature in case your mower ventures too far away under somebody else’s control. Would that be called Find My Lawnmower?
Doing yardwork from the couch gets my vote! Or it would, if I had a lawn…
[via TG Daily]
This is how much it costs in electricity to run my 13″ MacBook Pro per year, if it were continually left on: $11.20. My 32-inch flat screen TV? That’s a whopping $100/year, if left on; but when it’s off, it’ll only drain to the tune of about 75 cents per year (similarly, my MBP only drains about $2/year in sleep mode).
How do I know this? I’ve been (lame-pun alert) charging around, giddily testing everything in the house with Belkin’s Conserve Insight, a brilliant, $30 tool that measures the energy use of any gadget or appliance that plugs into a wall outlet — and the results have been (oh, and again) electrifying enough for me to really change my habits.
I’m a reluctant iPad parent who gave my toddler my gadget to play with once. Ever since that one experience, it has become impossible to use it when she’s around without her wanting to monopolize it.
She’s a true addict. She even looks at me weirdly if I put it down somewhere within her vicinity without handing it over to her.
Everybody freaked out this week about the discovery that iPhones store location history in an unencrypted file. Congressional grandstanders Al Franken and Ed Markey demanded that Steve Jobs explain himself. Matt Drudge used his Caps Lock key to write a screaming headline about it. Gimme a break.
The whole “LocationGate” scandal is a non-issue, as far as I’m concerned. It’s just a lot of noise about a potential privacy breach that buries the real privacy violations happening every day.
This week’s selection of must-have iOS apps features a brand new social news experience called News.me. Created by Bit.ly, with backing from The New York Times, this app shows you not just what your friends are sharing, but also what they’re reading.
Sony’s new Crackle application offers a library of over 100 great movies and TV shows, such as The Da Vinci Code, Ghostbusters, Seinfield and Spider-Man – all of which are completely free to watch.
RockMelt also makes this week’s must-haves – a web browser that seamlessly integrates social networking and syncs with RockMelt on your computer.
Find out more about the applications above, and check out the rest of week’s must-haves – including Seamless, Photosynth and FindOne – after the break!
Apple may be prototyping an iPhone 5 with a tapered design, a larger 3.7-inch screen and a gesture-sensitive Home Button.
This is according to the ex-Engadget crew at the new “This my Next” website, who whipped up the mockup above to illustrate the various rumors they’re hearing.
Joshua Topolsky warns, however, that none of this is set in stone: “Keep in mind that this info isn’t fact — we’re getting lots of threads from lots of places and trying to make sense of the noise. The versions of devices our sources are seeing could be design prototypes and not production-ready phones. Still, there are strong indications that Apple will surprise a public that’s expecting a bump more along the lines of the 3G to 3GS — and this is some insight into where those designs might be headed.”
Looks like the white iPhone 4 is just about to be released.
One customer in the UK was able to buy a 16GB white iPhone 4 from Vodaphone, and an internal memo from BelCompany in the Netherlands says the near-mythical handset is being released next week — Wednesday, April 27th.
In addition, retailers in Europe are getting supplies of the iPhone with “do not open until April 27” stickers, says 9to5Mac.
It is not clear, however, if that is the worldwide launch for the white iPhone 4. But it certainly looks like it.
We close out another week with hardware. First up are several iMacs from the Apple Store, starting at $1,019 for a 3.06GHz Intel Core i3 machine with 22-inch display. Next is a stand from Sharper Image for your iPod or iPhone. The stand includes a 1600mAh battery and is compatible with all iPhones and iPod touch models up to the 2nd generation. Finally, another group of discounted iPads, including a 16GB 3G model for just $329.
Along the way, we also check out several cases for your iPad, as well as a dock for your iPod or iPhone. As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
Apple has a great recycling program, but they are not the only company to offer such a program. Both RadioShack and Best Buy offer their own recycling programs. I thought it might be nice to share some information about these alternative programs with you on Earth Day.
The reason I’m mentioning this is due to the fact that I often hear from readers that aren’t close to an Apple Store. They often tell me that they may not even have a store in their city or state. Ouch.
Country living might be restful, but I’m glad that I live in a big city since Houston has six Apple Stores accessible to everyone living in Houston or the surrounding areas. Fortunately, some of you without such good access to Apple Stores just might have access to a RadioShack or a Best Buy. So let’s take a look at what they have to offer.
Well, crud. I knew the day was coming when my beloved 11-inch MacBook Air would become obsolete, but I hoped it wouldn’t be so soon. It appears those hopes are dashed: Apple will reportedly refresh the MacBook Air line in June, replacing the current Mini DisplayPort with their new 10Gbps bi-directional Thunderbolt I/O port.
I like to imagine that Bulletproof started out as a pitch by Mobigame to develop an official, first-person game based upon the Matrix trilogy.
“Okay, dudes, get this: here you are, and you’re Neo, and there’s like five agents in front of you, shooting at point blank range, and then you stop time, and then you start punching the bullets right out of the air, and OH MY GOD IT’LL BE AWESOME.”
“Pass,” says Warner Bros. But no problem: you just change the background, slap some vaguely Soviet guard hats on the agents, and sell the whole game to Amnesty International, pitching it as a way to raise awareness of human rights violations around the world.
Now that’s business savvy.
When Valve Software released their much anticipated physics-based shooter Portal 2 earlier this week, they did so on pretty much every platform that could handle it, including the Mac, PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Unfortunately, despite its beefy A5 processor, the iPad 2 wasn’t on that list… but if you just can’t get enough Portal 2, you can at least download a new app for an exclusive, multimedia behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Valve’s new classic.
Called The Final Hours of Portal 2, the app is primairly a 15,000 word essay on the making of Valve’s much anticipated new game, documented with videos, lots of behind-the-scene pictures and interviews. It’s written by Geoff Keighley, an excellent video game journalist who wrote “The Final Hours of Half-Life,” “The Final Hours of Half-Life 2” and “Knee Deep In A Dream: The Story of Daikatana”. Collectively, these are some of the best example of long-form video games journalism ever, and I anticipate “The Final Hours of Portal 2” will be good company for them.
[via MacStories]
Although Verizon gained much of the attention over the iPhone 4, AT&T apparently added more subscribers enticed by a previous-generation Apple handset. Verizon gained less than 500,000 new customers during most of the second quarter while AT&T signed-up more than 800,000 new iPhone users, according to a Friday report.
In the two months of the three-month period the iPhone 4 was available throught Verizon, the carrier attracted 2.2 million iPhone devices. AT&T, however, experienced a record 3.6 million iPhone activation during the quarter — a 33 percent increase over the same period in 2010. The lack of any run-away success for Verizon runs counter to previous polls suggesting the carrier could siphon-off 26 percent of AT&T customers.
Why does AT&T need to gobble up T-Mobile? It’s all about dropped calls on the iPhone and the sick amount of data the iPad is slurping up, AT&T argues in their latest filing with the FCC.
This variation on the book safe for iPad is aimed at keeping the device in your possession when it’s out of your hands.
If you’re reaction is: “Hey, I can do that!” Here’s an are some DIY instructions.
The guy who made the DIY version reckons the project will cost you about $10, including the book, plus you’ll need rubber cement, an Exacto knife tape – and “quite a bit” of patience.
If you improve on the project – add magnets or a strap for a more secure hold – let us know.
Via Etsy
Apple’s iPad sales for Q2 were significantly lower than some analysts were expecting, especially given the 7MM+ iPads Cupertino was able to push over Q1.
What the heck happened? Did demand slacken because of the imminent arrival of the iPad 2? Could Apple not produce enough iPad 2s to satisfy demand because of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan?
According to comments made by research firm iSuppli, Apple’s low sales number for the quarter were primarily due to production issues that led to extreme shortages of display and speaker parts.
Apple does a pretty good job at being an environmentally conscious company. It seems like towards the end of every keynote, Steve Jobs expounds on what Apple is doing to lower the carbon foot print of their products. To celebrate Earth Day the guys over at Geekaphone created a really great info graphic to show just how eco-friendly the iPhone is. Packed with neat little facts, like how the iPhone 4 reduced emissions by 18% where as the iPhone 3G increased emissions by 22%, the big graphic is worth a look for anyone who wants to grasp the picture of their cellphones impact on the environment.
