I’ve been blown away recently with Google Translate, on both the web and on my iPhone – just superb speech recognition and translation abilities. But the speech synthesis capabilities of this versatile debabelizer are also quite impressive.
Deciding to run a spontaneous real world test, two young women called a local Indian restaurant and placed their entire order in Hindi – via Google Translate running in Chrome on a MacBook Pro. The software proved up to the challenge – the order was delivered correctly, the expressions are priceless, and a good time was had by all!
Not being able to get online can be a frustrating problem. It can cost hours of time and test your patience. See, Mac OS X doesn’t always work properly all of the time, and will occasionally assign itself an IP address, which will result in you being unable to connect to the internet. Luckily, there is an easy solution. You can use System Preferences to set a new Network Location, as well as renew your DHCP lease to fix the problem. This video will show you how to quickly fix the problem of self assigned IP addresses through System Preferences.
New to iOS 4.3 is the Personal Hotspot feature, which turns your iPhone 4 into a 5-device mobile hotspot. You can use it with WiFi, Bluetooth, or USB. The catch? Carriers will charge an extra monthly fee on-top of your already expensive phone bill. Well, there’s a nice little jailbreak tweak called TetherMe which will instantly enable this feature. It’s been out for a while and had originally enabled iOS 3.0’s native tethering feature, but it also works for Personal Hotspot. The best part? It’s only $0.99. Continue reading on to see if it’s for you.
Everyone seemed to be pretty excited about the Clamcase for the iPad, from Clamcase LLC. I was a bit puzzled by that after all the iPad is a tablet and a real laptop, like my MacBook Air, would be a better replacement for an iPad stuffed into a keyboard case.
Yet people wanted to be able to covert their iPad into a laptop and if you build it they will come right? Well build it they did and now you can have a Clamcase of your very own to turn your iPad into a clunky laptop wannabe.
Hungarian politician Jozsef Szajer is drafting the country's new constitution on an iPad.
A Hungarian politician is for the first time drafting the country’s new constitution on an iPad.
Politician Jozsef Szajer, a member of the European Parliament for Hungary’s ruling party, said in a blog post:
Steve Jobs will surely be happy when he gets word that Hungary’s new constitution is being written on an iPad, actually my iPad… The best is I don’t have to wait for minutes to turn it on, like with a normal laptop. I can open it anywhere and can take advantage of every minute. It’s a miracle!
It’s almost too easy to make a parody video of Apple and its products these days. The company follows an easily discernible regularity in its product launches and despite growing popularity and marketshare for all of its products over the last decade, Apple’s “image” is tagged with the weight of a certain “hipster cred” that tends to make for easy pickings when it comes to ridicule.
Director Dan Dobi and writer Steve Rogowski skate pretty close to several uncomfortable lines in this one, however, which, presumably is intentional.
After all, parody and sarcasm are about getting people talking, right?
Here’s a hidden gem inside of iOS 4.3 that hasn’t been mentioned by anyone as far as I know. It was pointed out to me by an anonymous tipster, who sent me a few screen shots.
Apple is now allowing you to purchase Ringtones directly from your iPhone 4 (I’m not sure if this is supported by other models, but I suspect it would be).
We wrap up the week with an all-iPhone app deal spotlight. First up is a new crop of iPhone App Store freebies, including the aerial battle game “DOGFIGHT!” Next is another new batch of freebies, including “Urban Ninja.” Finally, we take a look at some discounted iPhone apps, including the physics-based game “Burn the Rope.”
Along the way, we check out some hardware deals, such as a 3.06GHx Core i3 22-inch iMac for $1,019. Also on the the list is a blast from the past: a 1.33GHz iBook G4 with 12-inch screen and software bundle for just $240. We close out the peek at Apple hardware with a number of deals on the iPod touch, including a 32GB unit for just $199.
As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
Leading up to the iPad 2’s announcement, most of us were expecting a relatively modest refresh over the original iPad, and technically speaking, that’s what the iPad 2 is: it’s a slightly thinner, slightly faster iteration on the last generation. It’s amazing, though, how what on paper seems like such a modest spec bump can in fact be such a must-have update for millions of people.
It’s the Apple magic at work, and look no further than the massive volume of original trade-ins that reCommerce companies like Gazelle, eBay and NextWorth are experiencing for proof that the iPad 2 is going to sell like gang busters.
Conan O’Brien thinks Apple is getting a bit cocky. Never one to pass up the opportunity for a good parody, Team Coco takes on Apple’s slick interview-laden style in this funny spoof of the iPad 2 launch video.
Think Steve Jobs is the only employee at Apple capable of harnessing the Reality Distortion Field? And ever wonder about those team fashion choices? (Promo spot plays before actual video.)
µTorrent has long been the best Bittorrent client for Windows, and for my money (nothing, since the app’s free), it’s been the best Bittorrent client for Mac since its debut as well. Historically, though, the Mac version of µTorrent simply hasn’t been as full-featured as the PC counterpart… but that’s all changed with the latest beta, which is available to download now over at the official site.
The latest beta of µTorrent brings over to the Mac many of the most widely requested features on the PC. Here’s what is new:
It’s about that time of year again: the annual Pwn2Own computer hacking conference is kicking off next week. Since compromising browsers is a big part of the event, the big browser makers, including Google and Mozilla, have already issues security patches, trying to close up vulnerabilities before the hacking frenzy.
Now it appears that Apple is preparing to follow suit. According to French security firm Vupen, Apple will be issuing a patch to close up Safari’s vulnerabilities after a similar patch was issued on Wednesday for iTunes, closing up fifty exploits in WebKit.
Pwn2Own starts on March 9th and goes through March 11th. At the event, security researchers and hackers will compete for $65,000 in prize money as they try to take down the most current versions of all the major browsers, including Safari 5, Chrome, Internet Explorer and Firefox.
Despite Apple’s push to leverage the iPad to conquer the e-reader market, numbers say consumers have other plans. Earlier this week, CEO Steve Jobs trumpeted his iBooks store selling 100 billion ebooks during the service’s first 11 months. Eclipsing that marker is new research indicating music downloads are five times as popular and 15 times as many apps downloaded during the same period.
“The conclusion that can be drawn so far is that apps/songs show an order of magnitude more popularity than ebooks,” said Asymco’s Horace Dediu Friday. It is unclear whether Kindle’s ebooks outsell Amazon’s music downloads because the two companies offer differing delivery methods, with the Seattle-based Internet retailer foregoing an Apple-like integration of ebooks, music and app sales.
At Wednesday’s iPad 2 launch event, Steve Jobs described competitors as “flummoxed” to counter the iPad’s success, and he’s right. Almost a year after the iPad’s debut and we’re only starting to see the first of the original iPad’s real Android competition: not the 7-inch tweeners, but actual competition to the iPad’s software and hardware feature set. So what does Apple do? They come along with the iPad 2 and effortlessly cut the legs out from underneath the competition.
Samsung is one of Apple’s biggest suppliers and one of its biggest competitors, especially in the smartphone and tablet space: Samsung’s still unreleased Galaxy Tab 10.1 is one of the few Android tablets that seemed to be competitive in features and hardware with the original iPad. Stress original, though, because in the wake of the iPad 2, Samsung VP Lee Don-Joo has gone on the record as saying that parts of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 are “inadequate” compared to the iPad 2.
Flummoxed is right. Apple’s modus operandi for product revisions is hardly some sort of arcane mystery: they improve the software, make the device thinner and try to eke out some more battery life. How did Samsung — one of Apple’s biggest component suppliers — get caught off guard by the iPad 2?
The answer? They didn’t, of course. They knew what was coming. As a company, though, they just weren’t agile or resourceful enough to head it off.
Apple’s adamant that you should use their FaceTime video chat software over WiFi, and even have some software checks to make sure you’re not trying to pump your pixellated mug out over 3G. It appears, though, that the iPhone 4 isn’t particularly mindful if you’re connect to 3G somewhere down the pipe: if you want to use FaceTime on an iPhone 4 over 3G, it’s just a Personal Hotspot away.
Further indications Apple wants to use its $1 billion data center to stream media to its family of mobile devices, such as the iPad, iPhone and iPod. The Cupertino, Calif. company reportedly is pressing music publishers to allow repeated downloads of music purchased through the iTunes store.
The move would alter current iTunes policy, allowing consumers to re-download music despite the originals no longer stored on connected devices. An agreement could be reached as soon as the middle of this year as Apple preps its North Carolina data farm this spring by iTunes and MobileMe.
For those who like to add sparkle to their bling – and can afford to spend as much on their iPad case as on the iDevice itself – CrystalRoc has announced their Swarovski iPad 2 case. Featuring over 4,000 Xilion cut crystals this ultra-chic piece of loungeware will set you back $700, and is shipping immediately.
Why wait for ostrich leather? Not recommended for use on subways or in urban areas at night.
Have you ever wanted to watch a movie from iTunes on your iPhone without actually syncing anything?
With iOS 4.3 and iTunes 10.2, your dreams will come true. iTunes Home Sharing is a new feature of iOS 4.3, which will be released to the public on March 11. It was demonstrated earlier this week at the iPad 2 launch event.
Home Sharing will allow you to easily share your music, videos, and photos to any iOS 4.3 device over your local WiFi network. This eliminates the need for third-party applications or transcoding software.
For those of you who like living on the Bleeding Age – while running on older hardware – Cult of Mac received this tip from reader Matt Briggs about getting his Core Duo based MacBook running the Lion Developer Preview installation of Mac OS X 10.7:
I managed to get the Lion preview running on a supposedly unsupported Macbook Core Duo from May 2006.
I installed Lion on a USB drive hooked up to a Mac Mini Core 2 Duo 2009, then removed /System/Library/CoreServices/PlatformSupport.plist and the same drive booted in the Macbook with no issues!
there might be some stricter restrictions in the future, but pretty good right now!
IMPORTANT: This is an unverified tip of an unsupported configuration. Use a spare hard drive for any tests, do not overwrite your primary system. This capability may not last in the official release versions.
I don’t have a Core Duo system myself to test this, so if anyone can duplicate these results on their own system please let us know in the comments.
When reader Liam Dennis updated his Twitter for iPhone app yesterday, it told him that Steve Jobs had registered a Twitter account. He explains:
“It scanned my address book for users I wasn’t following. It only found one. A twitter account linked to [email protected], a contact I had made to send the occasional email to him as we all do.
The [email protected] email address is known, of course, as Steve Jobs’ email address at Apple — the one he uses for his famous one-word responses to customers’ queries.
Hackers are getting faster and faster. Apple released the iOS 4.3 GM to developers earlier today. A few hours later, hackers had figured out a jailbreak for that same release. The same actually went for the iOS 4.3 betas (1 through 3, to be exact).
After the break: how to jailbreak your iOS 4.3 device (Be warned: it’s a bit of work to gather up the required keys and patches to make the jailbreak).
We knew it was coming, but AT&T has just confirmed that their network will support iOS 4.3’s new Personal Hotspot feature (previously a Verizon iPhone exclusive) starting on March 11th.
If you are already a $25 DataPro plan subscriber (which nets you 2GB of usage) and also have the $20 a month tethering option, you’ll be updated to AT&T’s new plan automatically when the change pushes out next Friday.
Verizon iPhone users, of course, get unlimited data, but the Personal Hotspot capability costs $20 for 2GB of data to up to 5 connected devices. AT&T’s plan, on the other hand, gives you 4GB total data to play with: either 4GB through your iPhone 4 alone, or 4GB parceled out between the iPhone 4 and the devices connected to it via Personal Hotspot.
Ultimately, AT&T’s implementation of Personal Hotspot seems like a better deal for extreme road warriors, while Verizon’s seems better for regular users. Which plan do you prefer: AT&T’s implementation, or Verizon’s?
A company called C² Technologies has announced the first of seven iPhone apps for training U.S. Army crews who operate and fire Patriot Missiles. Called the Mobile App for Patriot Missile System, the training program was developed on a game platform called Unity 3D.
The app uses multimedia for training, including video of actual Patriot Missile crews, 3D animations, pictures and text.
According to a release by C², the app “covers positioning and readying [of] the Patriot Missile system to launch and fire.” Can your Android app do that?
Apple released the Gold Master of iOS 4.3 to developers this afternoon. The Gold Master release includes the iPad, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS as well as the 3rd and 4th generation iPod touch.
The new AppleTV has been left out in the cold still sporting iOS 4.3 Beta 3 and there is no word on when it’s firmware will go Gold Master.
Registered iOS developers can download these updates as well as a new Gold Master SDK from developer.apple.com.
