Cult of Mac

Apple has a vested interested in getting as many iPad 2s into customer hands as possible, as quickly as possible. It’s not only about mere volume of unit sales. It’s also about trying to slacken the crazy demand that the iPad 2 has generated before customers actively start resenting Apple for it and, in their impatience, are literally driven out of their minds (a state diagnosable by purchasing a Xoom).

So imagine how absolutely ticked off Apple must have been when they heard that Best Buy has been refusing to sell all of its stock of iPad 2s to customers, because they’ve already reached their sales quotas for that day. Actually, no need to imagine, because according to a Best Buy employee speaking to Crunchgear, the answer is “very.”

Earlier this week, popular iOS game developer PopCap – the team behind Bejeweled 2, Plants vs. Zombies and Chuzzle – announced that they were launching a sister studio called ‘4th & Battery‘. They also revealed that its first game, Unpleasant Horse, was going to hit the App Store imminently, but it seems Apple may have spoiled their party by rejecting the game due to its “mature content.”

4th & Battery declared their displeasure at Apple’s decision on Twitter, but their tweets disappeared shortly afterwards. Fortunately, Joystiq managed to grab a screenshot of the tweets, one of which read: “WTF? Apple rejected Unpleasant Horse cuz of “mature content?” We thought horses dying in meat grinders was wholesome family entertainment!”

Another day, another deal. Today we have deals for the iPad, iPhone and Mac. First up is another batch of iPads, starting at $529 for a 64GB Wi-Fi and 3G tablet from AT&T.Next is a carbon skin for the iPhone 4. We wrap-up the spotlight with the ModBook, a modified 2.13GHz MacBook with 13.3-inch widescreen to behave like a tablet – just 1,949.

Along the way, we also take a look at music and digital editing software for your Mac. As usual, details on these and many more items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

We’ve written about how iPads are used in schools and pilot training, but it’s fascinating to see how they are changing the plays on the basketball court.

From playbooks to bus schedules, a number of NBA teams are making sure players don’t miss a beat by using iPads, according to a detailed piece in slamonline.

“We use it for everything. We put our whole playbook and rulebook on it,” said Washington Wizards assistant coach Ryan Saunders, whose father, head coach Flip Saunders, unofficially made the team the first known NBA franchise to use iPads for team operations. “Our whole calender is mapped out. Guys can know when buses are leaving, when planes are leaving.”

A new application called iKeyGuard is the first key logger for the iPhone, and is now available to jailbroken devices through Cydia. The application runs discretely in the background and keeps a record of every single key pressed on the device.

iKeyGuard is $9.99 and is simple to install; just download the package from Cydia and it will start working as soon as it’s installed. The application’s main menu is accessed through Safari in order to be discrete, and this is where you can access your archive of key logs. You can also have them emailed to you at different intervals.

Its developer advertises iKeyGuard as a way of ensuring your employees are keeping your data safe, but we’re sure its main use will be to spy on kids and spouses.

If you want to be a little creepy, you can access the package from the BigBoss repo, which is installed with Cydia as default. Let us know what you think in the comments.

[via iPhone Download Blog]

When’s the iPhone 5 arriving? How is the iPad selling? What about the iPod? These are all immaterial questions, one Wall Street expert argues Thursday. Forget about the products and keep your eye on the platform. “Products last maybe a year, ‘platforms’ last decades,” he tells investors.

“We believe the single biggest change in Apple over the past few years is that it has moved from being something of a ‘hit product’ movie studio dependent on each new release back to being a better-than-ever ‘platform’ company, where its iOS plus hardware plus apps ecosystem … are what truly matters and drive longevity,” writes Caris & Co. analyst Robert Cihra.

Italians use the same word – filibustiere – for long-winded attempts to slow down legislative sessions, now they are using the iPad to combat boredom at work.

These pics were snapped during what was apparently an endless session about shortening trials.

Android-based smartphones will become the most popular option by the end of 2011, with the Google-powered handsets accounting for 49 percent of the world market by 2012. That’s the word from one research firm, which also announced Thursday Apple’s iOS platform will remain No. 2 because the Cupertino, Calif. firm prefers margin over market share.

Although Android devices will push the average smartphone price to $300 or less, “Apple will be interested in maintaining margins rather than pursuing market share by changing its pricing strategy,” Gartner said. Apple’s iOS will peak in 2011 with growth in the U.S. and Western Europe. Sales to emerging markets will be limited, the researcher predicts.

Bing has just been released for the iPad. It sure as heck looks gorgeous. Loading it up, you don’t just get Bing search or their usual flourish of a gorgeous wallpaper, but Bing’s app will also give you a quick look at the local weather, news, movies, trends, finances and more.

Bing’s done a pretty good job differentiating itself for the better from Google in the last year, and we’ve even heard the occasional rumble that Apple would choose to get into bed with Microsoft and make Bing the default search engine instead of Google. That’s unlikely for a number of reasons, especially since Apple doesn’t view Google as much of a threat as Amazon right now, but it does mean that Bing’s worthy of your attention, at the very least.

Like a raven attracted to bright, shiny objects it’s hard to miss a headline like “The underground iPhone: Million-dollar jailbreaking industry thrives on legal loophole.”

The million dollar part sort of sticks in your craw.

Here’s the supporting evidence:

Early jailbreakers were inspired by rockstar-like fame, stardom, and the urge to test limits of creative ambition. Money followed in time and soon some of the jailbreaking vanguard started following money. Now iPhone jailbreaking is a multi-million dollar semi-underground business and there are legal loopholes that facilitate the growth of jailbreaking. (Emphasis ours.)

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When we talk about 3D when it comes to displays, the third dimension we’re talking about is a z-axis popping out at you, a la the Nintendo 3DS. But when we talk about the possibility of a 3D iPad, or a 3D iPhone, or any other 3D touchscreen device, why are we talking about Apple adding a superfluous visual dimension when we can be talking about adding a very real tactile dimension to the same device?

In other words, when you poke an icon on iOS, what’s more important: for it to float off the screen, or for it to feel like you pressed something physical, and not ephemeral. That’s just the problem that Peratech is working on, and with its QTC (Quantum Tunneling Composite) Clear, it’s come up with an invention that any Apple fan can excited about: a force-sensitive touchscreen that allows users to apply the third-dimension of pressure.

What does that mean? Think of painters being able to apply pressure to the strokes of their virtual brushes, or on-screen game controls that were truly analogue.

Best of all, Peratech’s tech can be used not only to replace resistive touchscreens (think: stylys-based) but also to supplement capacitive ones, like the iPad’s. And since the touchscreen is only between 6-8 microns thick and the panels draws almost no current, it ‘s a good fit for iOS’s line-up.

[via Gadget Lab]

Kevin Lee, a senior at George Mason University, Virginia, has turned iPhone jailbreaking into a full-time job, hacking customers devices to earn an impressive $50,000 a year. Lee uses Craigslist to advertise his services, which include unlocking, jailbreaking, and customizing devices to a user’s preference.

Lee told The Washington Post that he started off with a mere 5 to 10 customers a week – most of whom were friends. Now he pulls in between 30 and 40 – performing relatively simple hacks that many people don’t like to attempt themselves. A recent customer from the Mongolian embassy wanted his device unlocked so that he could use it in Mongolia when he moves.

Lee’s interview with The Washington Post is rather short, and he has since declined to provide further comment, removing his advert and contact details from Craigslist.

Apple has been rumored to be working on smart bezels for its iOS device series for a long time. The idea is to make all of that empty black space actually do something by imbuing the bezel with all of the touch sensitivity of the display itself. The problem, of course, is how to convey to a user that they’ve just interacted with something in the bezel, as well as avoid accidental triggers.

An exciting new patent shows us exactly what Apple has in mind: bezel’s imbued not just with touch functionality but with an underlying electroluminescent display that would allow the bezel itself to light up with words and icons when needed.

Apple reportedly is putting the final touches on a deal that would open a retail location near the Kremlin in Moscow. The 16,000-square-foot site would be in a historic Red Square hotel alongside an international restaurant and gallery.

Although no contract has been signed, two executives from the Cupertino, Calif. company visited Moscow in March to review the two-story space in Hotel Moskva and a decision is expected soon, according to a news site which tracks Apple’s retail moves. If a deal is inked, the location would be the first Apple Store in any of the former Soviet Union republics.

According to a source for Boy Genius Report, Apple is working on the next release of iOS and planning to release the firmware to the public during the next two weeks. iOS 4.3.2 will include a few enhancements, address security issues, and fix several bugs that have effected some users.

Unfortunately the details handed over to BGR are a little limited, so we’re unable to report what enhancements or bug fixes will be made in the next iOS release. Although, issues with Wi-Fi that effects users with certain routers, and a problem with the taking photographs on the iPad 2, have been picked up in iOS 4.3.1.

BGR sources seem to have been consistent with their information in recent months, revealing on March 21st that iOS 4.2.1 would launch within two weeks – 4 days before it went live.

As always, we’ll let you know when iOS 4.3.2 is available to download.

A one month delay to the launch of RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook may have been down to Apple’s high demand for touch panels for its iPad 2. The 7-inch PlayBook is set to launch on April 19th at $499, but shipments were postponed for about a month because RIM couldn’t get its hands on enough touch panels.

Citing sources from touch screen manufacturers, a DigiTimes report says the PlayBook setback was “due to a delay in software testing as well as shortage of touch panels because Apple already booked up most of the available capacity.”

Thanks to Apple’s abundance of cash reserves, the Cupertino company can pre-pay for components and get guaranteed priority from manufacturers. This means that RIM’s PlayBook – a tablet which aims to rival the iPad – won’t launch now until at least a month after the iPad 2 began shipping. It was originally scheduled for release during the first quarter of this year.

[via AppleInsider]

Kick to Pick is a unique new application for the iPhone that is designed to enable an unborn baby to pick its own name. Yes – you did read that correctly!

The $0.99 app lets you choose a gender-specific list of thousands of names for boys and girls. You then lie down, place the device on your bump (airplane mode recommended) and press the button to activate the countdown. Kick to Pick will begin cycling through the list of potential names until it detects that all important kick from your baby. Once your baby has chosen its name, you can have the final say and decide whether or not to accept the suggestion.

Kick to Pick, although a novelty, is a testament to what iOS applications can do with a little imagination – just as you thought everything your iPhone could achieve with apps had already covered!

Despite the short supply of iPad 2s, training materials for Toys ‘R’ Us staff have revealed that the children’s toy giant could be the next store to offer the device. Pictures sent into ModMyI show one of the questions featured in the employee training programme, and a product sheet for the device – both of which contain a Toys ‘R’ Us logo.

The badly-worded question was obtained during an employee training session and reads: “The iPad 2 features a what size LED screen?” Together with the branded product sheet, these photographs would suggest that a Toys ‘R’ Us launch of the device could be imminent.

Retro gamers can now enjoy 100 classic Atari titles on their iOS devices thanks to the launch of Atari’s Greatest Hits. The application is a free download that comes bundled with Pong, and through in-app purchases users can download additional game packs at $0.99 each, or the entire collection of 100 games for $14.99.

The collection of classic hits includes 18 Atari arcade games and 92 Atari 2600 games. But the fun doesn’t stop there; the app also boasts head-to-head multiplayer over Bluetooth and original cabinet and box art.

Check out the entire list of games available – and those that support Bluetooth multiplayer – after the break.

This is a guest post by Paul Lamere, an executive at The Echo Nest, a music intelligence company located in Somerville, Mass. It was originally published here.

For the last year we’ve heard rumors of how both Apple and Google were getting close to releasing music locker services that allow music listeners to upload their music collection to the cloud giving them the ability to listen to their music everywhere.

So it was a big surprise when the first major Internet player to launch a music locker service wasn’t Google or Apple, but instead was Amazon.  Last week, with little fanfare, Amazon released its Amazon Cloud Drive, a cloud-based music locker that includes the Amazon Cloud Player allowing people to listen to their music anywhere.

Amazon’s entry into the music locker is a big deal and should be particularly worrisome for Google and Apple.  Amazon brings some special sauce to the music locker world that will make them a formidable competitor:

We’ve been keen followers of developments at CloudEngines, the outfit behind the Pogoplug network-attached storage device, ever since we reviewed the first one back in late 2009. This month, a little over two years after the Pogoplug debuted, brings a whole raft of new offerings from the company — including one that may bring a big surge to NAS popularity in general.

This is all over Twitter today.

Grab your iThing, open Safari, and use the Google search box to search for “tilt”.

Your search results are… tilted.

Is this an easter egg? An April Fools gag that someone forgot to switch off?

We start off with three hardware deals: one desktop and two MacBook Pros. The desktop is an iMac with a 2.93GHz i7 processor, 27-inch screen, 16GB memory and more for $2,439. Next is a MacBook Pro powered by quad 7 processors running at 2GHz. The laptop has a 15-inch screen and is bundled with three years of AppleCare for $2,099. We wrap up the spotlight with a 2.8GHz MacBook Pro for $1,439.

Along the way, we also check out a 16GB iPhone 3G, more iPad cases and software for Mac downloading. As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

The iOS 4.3 update enabled third-party applications to take advantage of AirPlay and stream content to the AppleTV and other compatible devices. Since it went live, developers have been updating their apps to include AirPlay support, and we’ve put together a list of the top 10 iOS apps that are currently AirPlay ready. We’ve chosen apps to keep you entertained, up to date with the latest news, and even one to help you workout.

Check them out after the break!

Was there insider trading involved in Monday’s sell-off of Apple stock just prior to news that NASDAQ would rebalance several tech stocks, including Apple? That’s the concern of some investors trying to understand why $4.2 (1.2 percent) was shaved off the high-flying Cupertino, Calif. company.

“Doesn’t it feel as if someone got a call regarding the Apple re-weighting at 2pm on Friday afternoon, when the stock was trading at $348 and change?” Fortune quotes one investor. Monday’s sell-off of Apple shares happened on a “day when the Dow was up and a couple analysts had just raised their Apple target prices,” the magazine adds.