Cult of Mac

A hot item that has been around for a little while and has made quite a few gift guides for 2010 are the Ceramic Speakers by Joey Roth; a standalone speaker system made from “simple” materials for use with iPod/other portable media players, laptops, and turntables with phono pre-amps.

Everything about these speakers is interesting, starting with the ceramic materials they’re made of. I can’t help but wonder where Joey’s inspiration came from. Could it have been a flash of genius like when Doc Brown in Back to the Future slipped off the toilet hitting his head on the bathroom sink while attempting to hang a clock in his bathroom, conceiving the idea for the Flux Capacitor?!? Now I like to think I have my most brilliant thoughts and inspirations stimulated by ceramic bathroom fixtures, but the pairing of ceramic in use with speakers seems as unlikely as a Time Machine made from a DeLorean.

Earlier this week, Apple removed a WikiLeaks app from the App Store and joined the shameful ranks of U.S. companies that oppose press freedom.

Here’s the disgraceful episode as seen through the eyes of Next Media Animation, a Taiwanese tabloid that animates the news.

Jobs kicks WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange out of the App Store. He returns to hug other companies that have tried to privately censor WikiLeaks (Amazon, PayPal, Visa and Bank of America etc.). Outside, Assange pulls out an Android phone and fires up the banned WikiLeaks App.

As Next Media shows, you can’t suppress the truth. My Christmas wish is that Steve Jobs would get on the right side of this immensely important story. Unfortunately, he’s not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfOZ58USCyI

Via MICGadget. Thanks Chris.

Twas the day before Christmas, and all through the iHouse, not a creature was stirring – not even a MagicMouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care – in hope that an iPhone 4 would soon be there. The children were snug, their tummies full from a big meal – with visions of iMacs and iPad deals…

Okay, enough cheap rip-offs of Clement Moore. We spend the last day before Christmas showcasing a number of stocking-stuffer bargains, including applications for the iPhones and iPads likely to be unwrapped Saturday. First up is a new crop of price cuts on iPad apps, such as “Catan HD,” a guitar simulator. Next we check out some new iPhone app price drops, including “Inspector Gadget.” We wrap up our spotlight deals with an 8GB iPod touch (with a $50 gift card) for just $205.

Along the way, we also take a look at some iMacs on sale, such as a 22-inch desktop running a 3.06 Core 2 Duo processor for $929. As always, details on these and more items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

There’s a lot of fantastic Apple-centric projects trying to get off the ground thanks to crowd-sourced funding site Kickstarter, but if you’re green-conscious to boot, why not check out Eric Strebel’s Solar Vox, a portable gadget charger perfect for juicing up your iOS device?

The Solar Vox needs $35,000 of funding to become a real project, so if you’ve got Gaia tattooed anywhere on your body or just want a way to juice your Touch when you’re out hiking, maybe drop a few bucks on this one and help make it real.

For the iPhone user who has everything except his arms, meet the NoseDial, a new app that makes your contacts larger so that you can dial them using simply your face’s bulging proboscis. You don’t have to be a double amputee to use it, though: it’s also good if you’re trying to call someone with gloves you don’t want to take off.

Our favorite gadget vivisectionists over at iFixIt have just released a new iPad app that aims to be a free, easily-referenced glossary for their healthy library of open source self-repair manuals for every gadget under the sun: from the first generation iPod to the new, nigh-un-self-serviceable MacBook Air.

The Cherokee Language isn’t one that doesn’t get a lot of play off of the reservation, but you’re probably carrying around at least one terminal for it in your pocket: the Cherokee Language is now a part of iOS.

It’s actually been on iOS for a while now, since iOS 4.1, but the road to getting there was long: three years ago, the Cherokee Nation made a request of Apple that they would add their language to those supported on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. In September, though, Apple finally baked it into their mobile operating system along with approximately fifty other languages.

Cherokee Nation’s language technology representative Joseph Erb was pretty excited to see it added. “There are countries vying to get on these devices for languages, so we are pretty excited we were included.”

Cherokee is a dying language, and only 8,000 members of the approximately 300,000 strong tribe still speak it. Perhaps a few more will be turned on now that it’s a part of the most respected mobile operating system on Earth.

It’s close to Christmas, but not so close that there’s no stupid to report, so here’s your Yuletide dose: French site La Vie and photohournalist Jordan Pouille are again claiming that Foxconn is Hell on Earth.

Not that you’d come to that conclusion yourself, as the photoessay itself consigns itself to bookending shots of the barred windows at Foxconn’s dormitories (to prevent suicides) with shots of workers going to work, performing coordinated dances, shopping at malls, listening to pop music and shopping for food. What an Auschwitz, right?

I automatically love any story about a robber who tries to stick up a restaurant, only to have to deal with the armada of cooks in the kitchen arming themselves with cleavers and knives and preparing to go to war. I was once in a restaurant in Malden, Massachusetts that avoided being robbed in just the same manner.

That said, it’s rare that I get a chance to write about these amazing incidents of robbers vs. line cooks on Cult of Mac, but here we have an exception, when 20-year old Jerome Taylor made the mistake of falling afoul of a blade-wielding kitchen crew when he tried to rob a New London, Connecticut restaurant using only his iPhone.

Needless to say, the robber — 20-year old Jerome Taylor — failed. Although he brandished his iPhone like a gun, the cooks quickly flooded out of the kitchen, ready to slice and dice. Terrified by the charge, Taylor suddenly “became apologetic and told the cooks he was only kidding and that he needed money for his child.”

He seems to have convinced the staff, because they begged the police not to file charges. It didn’t work, though: Taylor was still charged with attempted robbery and interfering with an officer.

Next time you need money for Christmas for your child, Jerome, maybe try selling that iPhone on eBay instead of robbing a restaurant. Don’t you know they shove all the disreputable, violent lots back in the steamer of the kitchen? Those guys would cut you sooner than look at you.

You might not agree with her position, but you’ve got to admit that this is one precocious kid: a thirteen year old iPhone owner is set to go into court next month to contest what she and her family claim was an unjust charge levied by Apple Korea to fix an iPhone 3G which they claimed had been water damaged.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg might have made TIME Magazine’s title of “Person of the Year,” but the austere Financial Times has a much different take, and they’re giving the title to none other than Steve Jobs… and while there’s many reasons the Financial Times think Jobs qualifies, most of it boils down to the iPad.

It’s Christmas Eve, and if you don’t have today off, you’re probably just counting down the hours, so why not count down a third of one with this: a recent Defcon talk hosted by a hacker named Zoz, whose Quicksilver G4 was stolen over two years ago by a burglar named Melvin Guzman.

How did Zoz know Guzman was the perp? Easy: he had OpenDNS installed so when Guzman brought the Mac on line — two years later — he was able to SSH in. He also had VNC installed, which allowed him to see what the thief was doing on his machine.

And what was he doing? Mostly browsing countless porn sites with names like “elephantasses.com” as well as taking pictures of himself naked for online dating sites. Ultimately, Zoz was able to send the cops to the precise address of the guy who had stolen his G4 an entire country away, and recover it… but not before he consigned Guzman once and forever to the pantheon of stupid, stupid thieves.

Even if Apple thought Antennagate was overblown, let’s face it: their last attempt to put the iPhone’s antenna into the exposed edges of the device didn’t work out so well, prompting a PR catastrophe so bad that Apple was actually forced to hold an emergency press conference… something they never do.

That in and of itself suggests pretty strongly that Apple’s going to try something new for the iPhone antenna in future handsets, and if a new patent is any indication, that new approach to hiding the iPhone’s antenna may be by hiding it under the iconic Apple logo.

When you try to open a file that your Mac doesn’t already have a default app registered to, it doesn’t know what to do, so it either asks you to choose the application you want to use, or it will — if you so desire it — unceremoniously dump you back to Finder.

That’s actually not a very elegant way to handle unrecognized file extensions. Windows has a better system, for goodness’ sake: it will automatically search the web for applications that can open the file.

Luckily, with the arrival of the Mac App Store in January as well as the release of Mac OS X 10.6.6, that’s all slated to change. As it turns out, Apple has very cleverly deigned to integrate the App Store into the prompt you get when OS X doesn’t know what to do with a file: you can now search the Mac App Store for one that’ll work to open it. Keen!

Check out this 800-horsepower Mercedes S600 outfitted with a bunch of Apple gear. There’s Macs, iPads and iPhones galore. The car is a custom job by Brabus, the famous German aftermarket customizers.

Thanks Gustav.

Hiphop star Dr Dre is suing a headphone rival for allegedly knocking off his designs.

In a lawsuit, Dr Dre charges Fanny Wang’s new headphones with knocking off the Beats Solo and Studio models. Dr Dre’s headphones are made by Monster and sold under  the “Beats by Dr Dre” brand.

“Fanny Wang’s headphones, color scheme, packaging, and overall advertising campaign directly infringes Beats’ trademark and patent rights,” says a legal letter sent to Fanny Wang, which launched its new ‘phones earlier this month.

“I can honestly say the tactics they are pulling are clearly intended to squash competition,” said Tim Hickman, Fanny Wang’s CEO, in an email.

What do you think? Look at the picture above. On the left is Dr Dre’s Solo; on the right is one of Fanny Wang’s new models. Both are folding headphone designs. Here they are in more detial:

The upcoming Jack Black comedy, Gulliver’s Travels, which opens Christmas Day, will be one giant Apple ad.

When Gulliver travels to Lilliput, he brings his iPhone, which when used by the Lilliputians appears gigantic.

The movie has multiple MacBooks and other Apple products, and Apple logos galore.

Apple is easily the most successful company ever in getting its products into movies and TV shows. Some 41% of the movies that hit number-one at the box office featured Apple products.

Part of the reason for this success is that Hollywood is Apple-obsessed. Another is that Apple works at it. The company proudly boasts that it never pays for product placement. But it’s likely that there is some string pulling, proactive offers of devices to use and other actions that are kept secret by the company.

Whatever Apple is doing, it’s working.

You knew it was coming.  Currently VaporWare – and possibly HumorWare – Golden Cow Brands has announced the iToiletStand (aka Angled Stand), a waist high, foldable stand for iPads and other tablets which does just what you think:

Where can I use it? by the bath, couch, bed, in the kitchen or garage, by the toilet (yep, take a bit more time for yourself), next to your chair while playing a musical instrument, in hospitals, next to wheelchairs, somewhat near your barbecue grill, next to your lounge or lawn chair, next to your office desk, use it while giving presentations at school, during meetings or conferences, and the list goes on…

The implied cautionary warning of somewhat near your barbecue grill applies equally to anticipated bathroom usage.  The company says cost will be cheap enough for you to purchase several for use around the house, and shipping is anticipated to begin in early 2011

Too bad they missed the 2010 Holiday Shopping Season…

[via BornRich]

Need a last-minute stocking stuffer, or wondering how to keep that New Year’s resolution? Digifit is giving away its $80 ANT+ Digifit Connect — just download their free Digifit app, then pop for the $15 in-app upgrade (which allows the app to connect with the dongle).

The idea is pretty much the same as with the Wahoo Fisica dongle (also $80): Attach the Digifit Connect to an iPhone (or iPad or iPod) and it’ll communicate with any ANT+ heart-rate monitor, footpod, bicycle cadence or speed sensor; then workout data can be tracked and analyzed through the Digifit app, or download the data to one of several websites, like New Leaf Fitness.

As Christmas draws ever nearer, we have a trio of app deals for your favorite Apple device. First up is a new crop of price cuts on iPad applications from the iPad App Store, including “SuperBadminton 2010” for just $0.99 – a $4 price reduction. We also have new freebies from the iPhone App Store, including the seasonally-themed “Snowing Screensaver.” We wrap up our deal spotlight with “SoundHound,” a free music-recognition application for your iPhone.

Along the way, we’ll also check out some hardware deals, such as various iPads reduced by $100, and a 2.53GHz Core 2 Dup Mac mini for just $589. Also on tap is a variety of cases, screensavers and other items perfect for your i-product. As always, details on these and much more can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQmy3ZbqTY8

You may remember seeing the iGlo LED set from my review a couple of weeks ago.  Bruce Seymour, one of MEA’s directors has posted a video showing us how to use the lighting set on your Christmas tree. It’s a fun video and well worth checking out!

Apple and Android have consumed much of the ink used to describe the tablet wars. Now HP is attempting to grab some of the spotlight; it’s first move, an interview dissing Google’s mobile operating system as “backward looking” and preparing to take on Apple’s iPad with a Franken-tablet: part Palm and part revamped Slate.

HP’s Jon Rubinstein, who helped create the iMac and iPod when at Apple, has gone onto an executive position at Palm, which was then acquired by HP. Rubinstein, in a Wall Street Journal interview, talks about competition and the remade Slate tablet, now named the PalmPad, ahead of the upcoming CES.

If you want to watch Flash on your iPad despite Steve Jobs’ own cogent arguments against doing just that, you haven’t had a lot of options until now… but SkyFire — the neat Flash-to-HTML5 iOS conversion service — has just launched Skyfire for iPad, a neat native client that gives even more bang for the buck than the iPhone version. It’s available for download now for just $4.99.

You might not be able to watch a Blu-Ray DVD on your Mac, but Pioneer’s just unveiled a new line of 3D Blu-Ray players which not only feature DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD surround as well as 1080p video upscaling… but come with a new app called iControlAV that will allow you to control your new Pioneer player from the comfort of your iDevice. If you want one, it’ll cost you somewhere between $299 and $499.

What’s better than that horrific, buck-toothed, Tiny-Tim-loving Porifera Spongebob SquarePants perched atop a birthday cake lovingly baked and frosted in the shape of an iPhone? That horrific, buck-toothed, Tiny-Tim-loving Porifera Spongebob SquarePants perched atop a birthday cake containing a real-life iPhone.

Meanwhile, for my last birthday, I got a pie that contained nothing but rhubarb, and I was damn lucky to get it.