If you still rely on your TiVo more than your new AppleTV for watching television, TiVo’s soon to come out with a new app that will make it even easier to use their service from a supine position on your couch, using an iPad as an advanced remote control.
What’s at the top of most kid’s lists to Santa this Christmas season? It’s not a Red Rider BB Gun, or an Xbox 360, or some sort of transforming Killbot. It’s an Apple iPad, at least according to the latest survey by the Nielsen Company.
Ready to climb your ways out of the cave, lick a monolith, found a civilization, go to war, launch a Renaissance, fire off some nukes then load your people up in a rocket to zoom off to Alpha Centauri?
Good news, then. Sid Meier’s Civilization V is now available for the Mac through Valve’s Steam digital delivery service.
The range of devices running Linux grows every day. Now you can add one more to the list: Electrolux (Frigidaire) in Brazil has just announced the Infinity i-kitchen, a smart appliance running Linux on an embedded 400MHz Freescale i.MX25 processor. With 128MB RAM and a 480×800 touch panel, the i-kitchen provides the user with unparalleled control over his refrigerator operations.
Was the Beatles on iTunes worth the ten year wait and the thousands of hours of negotiation? Probably not, but Beatles songs and albums are still selling pretty damn well now that they’re finally available, even if they’re not really setting any sales records.
Back when Apple first announced iOS game matchmaking service, Game Center, everyone thought it was going to be the death of the existing services like OpenFeint.
It wasn’t. With its founder openly laughing “bring it on” in the face of GameCenter, OpenFeint reassessed its strengths: the ability to offer cross platform multiplayer between iOS and Android devices, and a thriving virtual goods market.
It looks like OpenFeint’s strategy has paid off. According to a report released by OpenFeint, their community has actually doubled to an incredible fifty million users since Game Center first launched. Games on the network have also more than doubled since Game Center was first announced, and now the OpenFeint compatible games library has 119% more titles than it did mere months ago.
Pretty incredible. Apple entering a software niche with its own official product is often times seen as a death sentence, but if OpenFeint’s success proves anything, it’s that smart, on-your-feet thinking and a willingness to evolve can make a direct competition with Apple into a positive thing.
Did Apple analysts use inside information to sway the price of Apple stock? That’s the question on the minds of government investigators who recently launched a probe of Wall Street and a common signal of Apple’s planning: ‘channel checks.’ To combat the legendary reluctance for public statements, experts covering the Cupertino, Calif. media giant often refer to ‘channel checks’ as a way to provide investors with insight into the planning of the iPhone maker.
Although no analysts were charged, an RBC analyst report on increased iPad production and a Rodman & Redshaw report on low iPad production may have caused Apple Shares to dip, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Ever since 2002, Oprah Winfrey has ended each year with a Christmas celebration in the form of her “Favorite Things” episode, in which she has lavished the members of her audience with the products of the year that entertainment’s most influential woman has gazed beneficently upon.
This past Monday, Oprah held her 2010 Favorite Things episode, and she gave all 275 members of her studio audience an item she declared “her number one favorite thing ever.”
What was it? A brand new iPad.
iOS 4.2.1 was just released, but already the rumor mill is churning about iOS 4.3… and it looks like it might arrive before the end of the year, much earlier than anyone had previously thought.
According to sources, Apple plans on releasing iOS 4.3 on Monday, December 13th… just three weeks after the debut of iOS 4.2.1.
I feel pretty good about being a 13-inch MacBook Air owner, but as the computer becomes more popular I’m no longer unique. My MacBook Air looks just like all the other ones out there, but it doesn’t have to thanks to Colorware.
[polldaddy poll=4138392]
Apple released iOS 4.2.1 for the iPad and true to their word converted the iPad switch from screen orientation lock to mute and un-mute. If you’ve had an iPad since it launched you’ll understand how convenient that switch can be when using your iPad. Of course, this change brings the iPad into alignment with the iPhone. The iPhone switch has always been used to mute and un-mute that device.
Both devices now use the switch in the same way and the screen orientation lock has been moved to the running tasks bar which is accessible by double-tapping the Home button and swiping to the left.
Here comes another one of those apps that drops jaws with its ingenuity — it’s a heart rate monitor that uses the iPhone 4’s camera to measure minute changes in skin color caused by blood flowing into and out of a finger.
According to Heart Rate – Free‘s App Store press release, simply sticking a finger over the iPhoen 4’s camer should deliver a heart rate figure within a few seconds, accompanied by a heartbeat chart. The app’s developer is quick to point out that the Heart Rate – Free is for entertainment only, but the concept is remarkable.
As its name suggests, Heart Rate Free is free.
The iPhone 4’s attenuation problems aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, which means iPhone 4 owners are stuck with two options: fattening the iPhone with a case or bumper, or living with the issue.
But there’s a third option. ThinSkins are strips of vinyl or PVC, die-cut to wrap perfectly around the iPhone 4’s rim , creating a barrier between a user’s hand and the phone’s external antenna, potentially eliminating the attenuation problem. Interestingly enough they’re from TruePower, the same outfit that gave us the mother of all backpack batteries, the iV Pro.
ThinSkins launched a few weeks ago, sell for $20, are easy to apply (according to TruePower) and come in more colors than a bowl of Skittles.
Body Dysmorphic Disorder from flight404 on Vimeo.
Check out this awesome video of Kinect hacker Robert Hodgin manipulating the Kinect feed in realtime with Cinder, a C++ programming environment for creative projects. (Hodgin posted the source + OSX project here: https://code.google.com/p/ruisource/downloads/list)
And here’s one with his cat:
As the days dwindle down to that all-important Black Friday start of holiday shopping, we have a few door-buster deals of our own. First up is the Black Friday App for your iPhone, allowing you to stay mobile, while scanning the sales fliers and snooping through the web sites of your favorite stores. Next is a deal on a 16GB Wi-Fi iPad for just $449 – shipping is free. We finally take a look at the latest crop of free iPhone apps, including the intriguingly-named “Rednecks v. Aliens” game.
Along the way, we also take a look at several iPad cases, a deal on EA games for your iPhone or iPad and assorted add-ons for your favorite Apple device. As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
A new analyst report out Tuesday highlights how ‘spin’ can affect how one reads the dry numbers of sales and shipments. For instance, Needham analyst Charlie Wolf chose to overlook the Mac’s 4.36 percent share of the PC market for the last quarter, instead concentrating a note to investors on how Apple’s growth is drubbing the otherwise tepid PC market. Mac shipments grew in September by 28.5 percent, far outstripping the 9.7 percent growth for PCs.
Additionally, Mac sales are firing on all cylinders propelled by the triple-threat halos from the iPod, iPhone and iPad. But wait, there’s even more good news. Mac shipments to business and home are exceeding those of PCs, according to researchers at IDC. Mac shipments to business during the third-quarter of 2010 were up 66.3 percent and grew 25.3 percent for the home market. That compares with overall business computer shipment growth of 8.5 percent and home growth of 10.4 percent.
It’s two days before Thanksgiving, and only 32 days away from Christmas, and we’re in a giving mood today! Thanks to Urban Tool, we’ve got a couple of hip, cool, jazzy fresh bags to give away. If you’re still rocking a Jansport backpack to work or for traveling, then you need to enter this giveaway.
Here’s How To Enter:
What You’ll Win
Each winner gets to choose between the stylish and hip pocketBar and slotBaron Urban Tool bags. You can also choose the color you want!
Giveaway Details
This giveaway is void where prohibited and there is no purchase necessary to enter the giveaway. Prizes will be shipped directly from Urban Tool. Cult of Mac is not responsible for shipping/handling of the prize. Please provide an accurate physical address if contacted that you are a winner.
Using the same engine as Unreal Citadel and the upcoming Infinity Blade, Dungeon Defenders: First Wave is a nifty looking iOS game by developer Trendy Entertainment that looks like a combination between Brutal Legend, World of Warcraft and Defense of the Ancients.
Dungeon Defenders: First Wave is due out in the middle of December for $2.99, along with an accompanying lite version, and will support Game Center for achievements and multiplayer between iOS devices, as well as Retina Display support.
Sure, it doesn’t look quite as pretty as other Unreal Enginer 3 games under iOS, but consider me sold anyway: to my tastes, Dungeon Defenders looks twice as fun.
If you’re flying on Delta through JFK this holiday season, you’ve now got a new way to wile away the time between flights: Delta has just installed 135 iPads at three of the airport’s gates, including Croque Madame, a French restaurant at Gates 21 and 22 in Terminal 2, and Bar Brace, an Italian restaurant at Gate 15 in Terminal 3.
Although the iPads are meant to encourage commuters to order food from their parent restaurants thanks to the included iPad menu apps, the management company responsible for their installation says that making a purchase is optional, and that the wireless internet connection is completely free.
That’s a swank little perk for flying Delta. Of course, you wouldn’t be caught dead traveling without your iPad anyway, would you?
While the audio benefits of an unpowered iPhone speaker dock are pretty minimal, Koostik’s line of wooden docks specially carved from assorted species of tree trunk in order to channel and boost your device’s sound volume are undeniably classy enough to live on almost any mantle. At $85 each, though, you almost wish they had at least a couple whizbang LEDs implanted within to justify the price.
Nuance, maker of Dragon Naturally Speaking, is not a new member of Apple’s acquisitions. That’s the opinion of a writer at TechCrunch, who suggests Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak misspoke during a video interview. Although Nuance has no official comment the company’s stock rose five percent Monday night on the speculation.
Remarking how voice recognition will likely take on more importance by computer makers, Wozniak said: “Apple’s probably thinking the same way; they recently bought Nuance that does a lot of great voice recognition for that program I mentioned, the Siri Assistant.”
With every major new release of iOS comes a period of anticipation for the next release of a stable jailbreak courtesy of the iPhone Dev Team… and the good news this time around is that it doesn’t look like iOS 4.2.1 set the Dev Team back very far at all.
One of the most frustrating aspects of iOS 4.2 and OS X 10.6.5 is how Apple’s new wireless printing standard, AirPrint, was gimped at the last minute from running on pretty much every shared network printer connected to a Mac to only officially supported on 11 AirPrint-compatible printers.
One iPad owner named Stan was so frustrated, in fact, that he wrote to Steve Jobs. “You got me all hyped about AirPrint. Now with iOS 4.2 released, I find out that I can only print on 11 select printers. Seriously?!”
Seriously, replies Steve, before reassuring Stan that the move to driverless, wireless printing is a vast undertaking, and that iOS 4.2’s AirPrint support is only the first step.
Although the rest of the gadget blogging community never has any shortage of scale-model Enterprises or working 8-bit computers built block by blockto write about, it’s harder for us Minecraft lovers here at Cult of Mac to find an opportunity to declare our adoration for the charming and addictive voxel-based world builder.
Thankfully, one resourceful Apple fan has just come to our rescue with an incredible recreation of the famous 5th Avenue Apple Store.
Yesterday’s update to iOS 4.2 brought a lot of great new features to the table, but for some users, it introduced one big problem: the ability to listen to music on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
