Cult of Mac

As you might expect, the new App Store manages software updates in a manner very similar to the iOS Store you’ll be familiar with if you use an iDevice.

If there are updates available for any of your installed applications, the Updates icon in the toolbar will sport a numbered icon telling you how many, as shown above.

To install the updates, just go to the Updates tab and click the UPDATE button:

During the update, you’ll see a little progress bar in situ, telling you when things are downloading and when they’re installing. If you previously removed the app from your Dock when it installed from the App Store, it won’t be re-added to the Dock by the installation process.

If a Verizon iPhone is announced Tuesday, as a weekend Wall Street Journal report suggests, the move could mean 9 million to 12 million more customers for Apple. However, if the carrier is able to do more than attract existing iPhone owners to switch from AT&T, the Cupertino, Calif. company could gain twice that figure, analysts predict.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said AT&T sold 14.5 million iPhones in 2010, comprising 30 percent of iPhone sales. Verizon should add 5 percent to that figure, Munster said.

The Mac App Store had a pretty big first day, racking up over a million downloads, but that’s more than just a big number for Apple… even successful software companies with proven distribution strategies are being wowed by the sort of numbers they’re seeing.

Take the chart above courtesy of Evernote, the popular virtual notebook and productivity suite. Note what happens to the Mac numbers come the Mac App Store launch day. Holy bejeebus.

Digg co-founder Kevin Rose posted on his blog over the weekend that the iPad 2 is coming as soon as February 1st, and will have a Retina Display. It’s almost enough to make a Mac blogger drown in the same sodium chloride he’s advising his readers to swallow.

Let’s flash back a few months to October, when an iOS developer called Applidium ported the indispensable VLC video player to the App Store as a free download. It was a great day for iOS device owners who wanted a more robust way of watching videos across many different codecs, but one of the lead contributors to the VLC project, Rémi Denis-Courmont, decided to get pissy about it. Why? Because VLC was released under a GPL license, and he felt that Apple wrapping a port of VLC in App Store DRM ran counter to that license.

Well, score a victory for VideoLAN, I guess. Denis-Courmont has successfully had VLC pulled from the App Store in response to a claim that the app violated VideoLAN’s licensing agreement.

Literally. In one of the greatest and most entertaining spectacles at CES 2011, consumers lined up at the Taser booth to get shocked — and I got it all on camera.

See pix of the live Taser demo below.

Apple’s long allowed customers to return or exchange purchases for up to 14 days, no questions asked, but that’s not to say they’ve ever wanted to encourage it: every time you exchange an Apple product, you’re charged a 10% restocking fee for an opened product, which has always seemed a tad miserly and anti-consumer for a company that otherwise so strongly focuses on the customer experience at their retail outlets.

Great news, then. It seems that Apple intends on ditching the 10% restocking fee come Tuesday. They don’t source their assertion, but they seem pretty confident.

It’s not a big deal — unless you’re the sort of person second-guessing a top-of-the-line Mac Pro who has previously had to eat a few bills — but it’s a nice change that should make switching to a Mac for the first time even more painless than it already is.

The Verizon iPhone is a truly exciting prospect for us geeks, for most people, it’s not going to be a big deal. It won’t be an all new phone, or substantially different hardware-wise from the current iPhone 4… it’ll just be on a different network, and that the difference between GSM and CDMA technology is profound just won’t matter to most people.

That puts Verizon in a little bit of a pickle: short of blaring on about how much superior their network is to AT&T’s (and they will do just that), what are they going to do to to easily differentiate the Verizon iPhone from the AT&T iPhone and make it seem like a different product entirely?

According to The Wall Street Journal, they’ll offer unlimited data.

I had originally experimented with the Mac App Store on my desktop computer installing a number of free and paid for applications. Now, I’ve finally gotten around to trying to install the same applications onto my MacBook Air just to see if I could, but I already know that I can. The licensing model of the Mac App Store allows it.

Unfortunately tonight the Mac App Store isn’t working and according to AppleCare there are two suggested ways to work around this that you need to try when the Mac App Store gives you an ambiguous error message: @@errorNum@@.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2011 — The annual Consumer Electronics Show this year was dominated by 3D TVs and Android tabs, but there was still plenty to see for Mac and iOS fans.

As the show wraps up, here’re our picks for the best gear on display in Sin City this year. Most, but not all, is Apple-related.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2011 — If the brief look we stole of the Altec Lansing lineup is anything to go by, we’re going to  be even more thrilled with their hardware this year than we were last year (when their InMotion Compact garnered a 4.5/5 rating). They’ve kept the key ingredients of intriguing-yet-simple design and cool features, but we get the impression everything seems somehow to be more grownup.

A good example is the just-released InMotion Air: An elegant, steel-grey rhomboid that streams music at a distance of up to a whopping 100 yards with the included wireless adapter, or via Bluetooth (at considerably less range); it also comes with a seven-hour battery. The InMotion Air will be available in February for $200, through Radio Shack or online through Altec Lansing.

AL has some additional tricks up its sleeve, which they revealed to us during a closed-door tour of their lineup; we can’t tell you exactly what they’re up to, because we had to sign a non-disclosure agreement just to get inside. But it’s cool, and it’s coming soon.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2011 — ID8-Mobile is following up on their  MoGo Talk iPhone case/Bluetooth headset — which just won a design award at CES this year — with a wide array of Bluetooth accessories: a MoGo Talk headset that charges inside a tiny, foldable battery case; a Bluetooth speakerphone that converts into a handset; a mini Bluetooth speaker; a Bluetooth remote-control device for presentations and whatnot and (pause to inhale) they’re bringing back their wafer-thin Bluetooth mouse (counterclockwise from bottom right in the photo above). Sitting beneath them is a pre-production Bluetooth keyboard for the iPad. Pricing and release dates on these new goodies not set yet.

If a bag is on display at CES, chances are excellent it’s got some kind of snazzy tech feature. Newcomer Powerbag caught our eye with its line of four handsome bags that all include batteries for charging iDevices (or other peripherals); Voltaic —  we featured their OffGrid backpack in our Holiday Gift Guide — just launched an iPad case with high-efficiency solar cells slathered all over one side.

Now that the festive period is out of the way and we begin to settle in to the new year, Apple has returned to reviewing App Store submissions and games and apps are starting to trickle in again. Here’s our pick of the best iOS apps to enter the App Store over the past week.

8mm Vintage Camera is a great new video application that shoots old-fashioned 8mm movies in real-time. It was recently reviewed by the Cult’s own David Martin, who was very impressed with the app’s effects and awarded it 4 out of 5 stars.

Trimensional is a ground-breaking photography app and the world’s first 3D scanner for the iPhone. It cleverly uses both the screen and the front-facing camera on your device, detecting patterns of light reflected off your face to create a true 3D model. The results are extraordinary and you can check out some screenshots after the break.

If you’ve made any New Year’s resolutions for 2011, Zendre for your iPhone is the app you need to keep track of your goals and achievements. Reward yourself progress points every time you do something towards meeting your resolution, and get the motivation you need to keep your resolutions going.

Find out more about the applications above and check out the rest of this week’s must-have iOS apps, including Awesome Files HD and Symphony Pro, after the break!

LAS VEGAS, CES 2011 — Griffin has paraded off so much cool new stuff at this year’s CES, you’d be excused for thinking this site’s name is actually “cultofgriffin.com” — this time, it’s their StompBox pedalboard for iPad with swappable effect modules.

If you’ve been following our posts about making music on the iPad, you’ve probably already heard about iShred — who make the free app that pairs with StompBox, for which Griffin originally made the GuitarConnect cable that connects instruments with 1/4-inch jacks to the iPad (or any other iDevice) last year. StompBox is just the evolution of the idea, giving musicians better control over the sounds via the physical switches (rather than using the soft controls of the app).

The app comes with several modules that make different sounds, and more can be collected via in-app purchase for a few bucks apiece. Griffin says StomBox should be available by spring of 2011 at $99, which includes the $30 GuitarConnect cable for free. The pedalboard can also be paired with Griffin’s new $40 Mic Stand Mount for iPad, available in January.

Now that the festive period is out of the way and we begin to settle in to the new year, Apple has returned to reviewing App Store submissions and games and apps are starting to trickle in again. Here’s our pick of the best iOS games to enter the App Store over the past week.

Grimm is the first I’ve discovered, and probably the first you’ll play, in which your aim is to navigate a lost baby’s carriage and successfully deliver the child home to its mother. This side-scrolling adventure is set in a dark and stylized world and delivers something a little different that iOS gamers are sure to love.

Block Rogue claims to be the biggest mobile puzzle adventure ever made, and the game in which each solution brings you one step closer to the truth. Problem-solvers will love the hundreds of mind-bending puzzles and dark mysteries that Block Rogue has to offer.

The latest highly addictive iPhone game features a big, colorful elephant named Clumsy Bob, who’s about to set off on an adventure around the world. Bounce Bob across the vibrant cartoon environments as far as you can for your highest score, then challenge your friends to beat it.

Find out more about the games above and check out the rest of this week’s must-haves, including Ascendancy and Flying Hamster, after the break!

Fresh to the iOS App Store is Trimensional, which takes real 3D photos on your iPhone, and is this week’s Best Thing Ever, without a doubt. It’s one of those photography apps that stands out against all the rest because it’s so different. And at one dollar, it’s a bargain.

So how does it work?

LAS VEGAS, CES 2011 — Incipio had a hit on its hands here at CES with a free iOS app that allows you to make your own custom case.

Using Incipio’s Bespoke Case Customizer app, you can upload your own photo and have it printed out on a custom case — right from your iPhone or iPod touch. Normally the service costs $30, but Incipio was printing out free cases at its booth instantly. Here’s some video of the app in action.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2011 — The new iChair case for the iPhone 4 comes with a screen protector for both the front and rear screens.

The case includes two transparent screen protectors, front and rear, even though the case itself protects the rear screen. The idea, of course, is to protect the iPhone’s glass back from the case itself.

“Our customers were asking for it because of the Glassgate issue,” explained CEO Vindi Sedey. “We had to have it.”

Glassgate is the debatable issue of trapped dirt scratching or shattering the iPhone 4’s back when used with slide-on cases. The issue doesn’t seem to be real, but Apple is wary of it and has suspended sales of slide-on cases in its stores.

iChair is a new company based out of Dallas, launching its line of iPhone and iPad cases at CES. The iChair features an integrated stand built into the case that functions in both portrait and landscape mode. The cases are slim and well-made — and go the extra mile in protection.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2011 — A lot of people complain about Apple’s stonewalling, but be thankful you’re not iKlear.

The popular screen cleaning company was horrified when Apple retail suddenly dropped its products from the stores — without a word of explanation.

“We’d been with them for more than eight-and-a-half years,” said Monica Younghein, spokeswoman for the family run business.

The company’s business halved overnight. It’s at CES trying to build business back up.

What made the blow especially painful, is that 11 months earlier Apple had chosen iKlear as the exclusive worldwide supplier of cleaning products in Apple stores. Apple retail is now selling similar cleaning products from a competitor. The competing products are inferior, said Younghein.

“It’s a disservice to Apple users to sell products that don’t work well,” she said. “And we don’t know why they did it.”

The Wall Street Journal reported today that the Verizon iPhone will be announced Tuesday, January 11.

The announcement will happen at an event at New York’s Lincoln Center and will be headlined by Verizon President and COO Lowell McAdam, according to the story.

Journalists were sent invitations by Verizon today, but those invitations did not specify what the announcement would be. The Journal says the iPhone announcement was confirmed by “a person familiar with the matter.”

What does it say about the current state of mobile telephony when one of the most exciting booths at CES belongs to a company that makes an app allowing iPhone users to make phone calls?

Line2 makes a tri-mode calling app that uses data, WiFi and even cellular voice connections to make and receive calls on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. Start with the 30-day free trial, then the service will cost $10 per month for unlimited calling, unlimited texts and a powerful voicemail system.

In a WiFI area, Line2 uses that connection to make and receive calls and texts. In an area with data (3G or EDGE) available, Line2 uses the data connection for your calls. And it can even utilize your beleaguered cellular carrier’s cell network to make and receive calls when all else fails.

So, for $120 a month you can activate your iPhone with your preferred cell carrier and for just $10 more you can actually make and receive calls!

Isn’t the Future awesome?

LAS VEGAS, CES 2011 – I wasn’t planning on ending up at the Case Logic booth, but as I was walking by, something rare happened—a product caught my eye.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2011 — Griffin Technology‘s new Crayola ColorStudio HD ($30) evoked so many bubbly noises while it was being demo’ed you’d think CES had become a popular  3rd-grade field trip destination. And if the fun little gadgapp (yeah, I know, see below) can make a bunch of jaded tech journos grin, you know it’s going to be a huge hit with the kids.

The app works with what’s essentially a jumbo stylus that paints color on the screen in a selected color. Parts of the page are animated, and those animated pieces can be colored in without the color bleeding over the lines. Finished pages can be emailed, uploaded to Facebook or printed.

Oh, about the “gadgapp” thing: So, this year’s CES seems indeed to be the year of the app-enhanced accessory; problem is — as my lamentably lame attempt demonstrates — we can’t seem to come up with a not-dorky term to concisely encapsulate this rapidly emerging new category of gadget. But we think our readers are sharp bunch, and we’re certain one of you can come up with something better. We”ll be announcing some sort of competition with prizes next week, be on the lookout.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2011 — Check out this simply stunning 3D-mapping technology from Swedish-based C3 Technologies that elicited a uniform reaction of “holy %$*@!” from us when we saw it. One reason for its precision is that it was developed from recently declassified missile targeting technology originally developed by Swedish aerospace powerhouse Saab.