Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment on this article and recommended other great iOS applications which help us to get fit. We’ve taken a look at all of the suggestions we’ve received and updated the article below to include a few of the great applications we missed first time round.
Who wants complete ringtone freedom? Sure, you do. So Johnny Ixe of XVision (yeah, we’re wondering about the name too), the developer behind DataMan, has a new app called GeoRing that’ll play tracks from a user-created playlist whenever the phone rings — no extra ringtone-making fiddling or syncing or and just like DataMan, GeoRing can record where each call was answered (along with when and the call’s duration, of course).
There’s an included custom silent ringtone (so the iPhone’s actual ringtone doesn’t play over the music) and the ability to set where on the track playback starts. Pretty cool; we’d like to see the ability to assign songs to contacts though. GeoRing is a buck, and only works with iPhones 3Gs and 4.
We start another week of Apple bargains with a new batch of price cuts on select applications from the iPhone App Store, including “Pinball HD.” Also in the spotlight are a leather sleeve for your iPad and a bumper holder for your iPhone 4 from IGg.
Along the way, we’ll also take a look an 83 percent discount on some iPod touch cases, as well as photo manipulation software for your Mac. As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
Master storyteller Mike Daisey’s one-man-show “The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” is a theater piece that every Apple fan should see.
It’s a laugh-out-loud monologue about the world of Apple, but it delivers an important message: The products we love are made under inhumane conditions.
If you’d asked me a couple of months ago if we’d ever see the release of the white iPhone 4, I would have laughed: delaying the white model until just three months before the assumed release of the white iPhone 5 just seemed like an empty promise, and I expected another quiet announcement on Apple’s part once March arrived that the white iPhone 4 had been canceled once and for all.
Looks like I’m going to have to swallow my skepticism: white iPhone 4s are now popping up in AT&T’s system. It appears that the white iPhone is a very real product indeed.
Apple, after acknowledging its growing use by enterprises, reportedly has hired former National Security Agency analyst, U.S. Navy cryptographer, and author David Rice to direct the tech giant’s global security efforts. The move is seen as a response to security-conscious business customers expressing interest in the iPhone, iPad and other Apple products.
Rice, expected to start at Apple in March, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1994 and received a master’s degree in information warfare from the Naval Postgraduate School. He was a Global Network Vulnerability analyst with the NSA and a Special Duty Cryptologic officer in the Navy.
After months of warrantless speculation that the iPad 2 would have a Retina Display, sanity seems to finally be sinking in, and even analysts are now beginning to temper their predictions by saying something closer to the truth: while Apple is interested in putting a Retina Display in the iPad, it won’t be coming until at least iPad 3.
According to IDC Analyst Tom Mainelli, Apple’s already working on an iPad with a 2048 x 1536 resolution Retina Display, but it’s not a next-gen device.
“Our sources say Apple has requested that manufacturers begin work on displays with that resolution for the iPad 3,” Maintelli told Digital Arts Online. “[But] “I don’t believe anybody is ready to produce that resolution in volumes at this point. And Apple is going to require huge volumes for the iPad 2.”
During a presentation to investors in New York on Thursday, T-Mobile CEO Philipp Humm put an explicit percentage on the so-called iPhone effect: how many T-Mobile subscribers leave every month for AT&T just because of Apple’s smartphone.
According to Humm, the churn rate — or number of contract customers lost per month — is sitting at 2 percent right now. Of that 2% leaving the network, a full ten percent are because customers want the iPhone.
To counter, Humm says that T-Mobile will launch a line of sub-$100 Android smartphones with subscription plans starting at just $10 a month. That doesn’t exactly sound like the plan of a company that thinks it’s going to get the iPhone any time soon, does it?
Worse, it reeks of desperation: you can’t retain customers you’re losing for lack of the best handset on Earth by offering them a cheap deal on some of the crummiest.
Here’s the moment when Apple sold its 10 billionth app over the weekend. The screenshot was captured by Fabio M Zambelli of the Italin tech blog, SetteB.IT.
Curiously, Zambelli took the screenshot at 10.30AM GMT. However, the winner of the sweepstakes says the winning app was downloaded at 9:30 GMT. “For 1 hour a lot of people wasted time,” said Zambelli in an email.
When you have to fork over a couple of hundred bills to get your Mac repaired, it can sometimes seem like Apple’s pretty desktops and laptops are too fragile for their own good, blowing apart in the path of a sneeze… but actually, Cupertino’s taken great pains to make them some of the toughest laptops around.
Case in point: during a recent wave of arson in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, the business of one Mac owner was savagely burned down. All of the items inside were destroyed by the fire, save two: a pair of 20-inch 2007 aluminum iMacs.
Even more amazing? Not only did the iMacs survive the fire, they also continued to operate even after being repeatedly sprayed by the hoses of the local fire constabulary.
It occurs to me this story would be great evidence to pull out next time you’re denied warranty coverage for your Mac at the local Genius Bar. In my experience, Geniuses like to deny coverage for both smoking around your Apple products and getting them wet… both of which at least these two iMacs seemed to be immune to.
[via TUAW]
Now that Verizon finally has the iPhone, it makes sense that eventually Apple will try to consolidate both the Verizon and AT&T specific handsets into a single model. But how? One network is CDMA, the other is GSM. They aren’t compatible.
Long before the Verizon iPhone was confirmed, we’d been hearing whispers about a dual CDMA/GSM radio chip manufactured by Qualcomm that would allow future iPhones to connect to both Verizon and AT&T networks. It now looks extremely likely that Apple will be using this Qualcomm-sourced radio component for future iPhones and iPads, instead of the Infineon hardware currently being used.
Apple last week was reticent to go beyond a “very strategic” component to describe how it plans to use a $3.9 billion payment to suppliers. However, now comes word the tech giant is giving suppliers marching orders to build high-resolution displays (2,048×1,536) for a future iPad.
“Apple has requested that manufacturers begin work on displays with that resolution for the iPad 3,” according to sources who spoke with an IDC analyst. The enhanced display will not be ready for the iPad 2, matching earlier reports about the updated tablet expected early this year.
The advent of the iPad and the ZAGGmate keyboard are a godsend for people like myself — people who are compulsive note takers, and who are constantly on the move.
I recently came across a humorous post on Facebook that made me laugh out loud so I thought I should share it. It read:
I named my iPhone Titanic, why you ask? So that every-time I plug my phone into the computer it says ” Titanic is now syncing”– haha
While the gallows tone of this tidbit of humor might offend some people it definitely makes most of them laugh at the creativity and obvious play on words.
So now the question is did you give your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad a unique name? If you did share it with everyone by leaving a comment.
The iPad isn’t just creating revenue for Apple and iOS developers, in many retail establishments it’s now tracking revenue as well. Everyone’s favorite iDevice has been increasingly seen helping out at the checkout counter and point-of-sale operations in restaurants and coffee shops worldwide.
Several vendors are now offering iPad software and integrated terminal hardware supporting order management, payment processing, reporting and remote management capability. What an ideal Geek Trend: iPads, Coffee, Cupcakes and Commerce!
That’s right folks the Impactband from BaseOneLabs, LLC. is one big ass iPhone 4 bumper case and it will work with all iPhone models including the one coming soon from Verizon.
The plethora of cases offered for the iPhone 4 have several things in common since most of them offer some level of protection and the ability to absorb the shock of an impact if dropped. The level of protection varies, but the Impactband has a unique way of protecting your iPhone 4.
The Home folder in a new account will probably look like the one above.
These are the default folders automatically created inside the Home folder of a new account.
You can create more folders here if you wish – after all, this is your Home folder, for you to play with as you see fit – but I’d suggest that beginners stick to the hierarchy that’s set up for you by the system. In this post, we’re going to go through those folders one by one.
One of our favorite iOS apps to feature in this week’s must-have list lets you stream your media between your iOS devices, or from iTunes on your computer over your Wi-Fi network. AirView works in a similar way to the AirPlay feature already built-in to iOS, however, instead of streaming only to your AppleTV, you can stream straight to your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.
Microsoft Office users will be familiar with OneNote, the powerful note taking application for all of your ideas that syncs your notes with free Windows Live online storage account, and allows you to access them from virtually anywhere using your phone, computer, or web browser. Now the OneNote application is available for your iPhone, allowing you to make notes while you’re on the go so that you don’t forget another good idea. It’s also free for a limited time!
Cloud Connect Pro for your iPad allows you to leave your laptop at home while you’re on the go, but still gain access to the files you have stored on your Mac and PC, or online storage services like Dropbox, iDisk, or Box.net. You can also access your home computer through the built-in screen sharing feature, and view and control your applications just like you’re sitting in front of them.
Find out more about the applications above and check out the rest of this week’s must-have iOS apps, including TapnScrap HD and TalkBox Voice Messenger, after the break!
Nike released another major update to their Nike+ GPS iPhone app last week. The app uses technology from MotionX, rather than the shoe sensor that Nike jointly developed with Apple. At CES, Nike launched the Nike+ SportWatch GPS in partnership with TomTom. Apple is notably absent from these recent announcements, and it seems the elegant simplicity of Nike+ is suffering as a result.
Here’s why…
Perhaps it’s another case of putting your tweet in your mouth, but Playboy founder and patriarch of the sexy mansion of the same name has announced, yet again, that his centerfolds will be available as mamma made them come March.
It’s not yet clear whether Playboy would be sold via iTunes — another bone of contention this week as one Euro-crat called the anti-trust on Apple for these subscriptions making the claim that Apple is abusing its position.
If Hef manages to get the goods past the Steve Jobs no-porn-on-my-device diktat, would you pay $8 for it?
Pugnacious PC pundit John C. Dvorak is always fun to read. His opinions are often as outrageous as they are insightful. I’ve always been a huge fan, even when I disagree.
Dvorak’s latest post on PCMag.com, headlined “Understanding the iPad Computer,” is one of those I disagree with. In fact, I think his whole argument is exactly the opposite of reality.
(This isn’t the first time I’ve butted heads with PCMag.com over the iPad, by the way.)
In a nutshell, Dvorak attributes the overwhelming success of the Apple iPad not to the user interface, but to the design of the tablet as an output device, rather than input device. He writes:
“It was always assumed that the pad was going to be primarily an input device, like a paper and pen notepad. The successful machines of today are primarily output devices, not a notepad. It was this one simple paradigm shift that appears to be the difference maker.”
The column and conclusion are based on three key assertions, all of them false.
The winner of the Apple’s 10 billionth App download sweepstakes nearly made a horrible mistake: she hung up the phone when Apple called to say she’d won.
“I thought it was a prank call,” says Gail Davis of Orpington, Kent, UK. “I said, ‘Thank you very much, I’m not interested’ and I hung up.”
This week’s must-have iOS games features a frantic side-scrolling platform game that’s unlike anything else we’ve seen. CrazyControl 2 starts with two characters running side-by-side, and you must control them both at the same time to ensure neither character stops running. However, just as you get used to controlling two characters, another is introduced until you finally have control of 6 characters all at once. This intense running game is action-packed, energetic, and a great load of fun.
Treasure Seekers 2: The Enchanted Canvases is the second instalment of the popular hidden object game Treasure Seekers, and this follow-up offers a captivating storyline about a young girl who must save her brother from a mysterious Romanian castle, where he has been imprisoned by an evil being. If you’re a fan of hidden object games, Treasure Seekers 2 is sure to please.
Warp back in time and join our forefathers in an addictive game of Cave Bowling in this physics-based pick-up-and-play game. Take aim of your bowling ball to send it flying through the rocky landscapes which are littered with crazy obstacles and prehistoric animals. See if you can take out all of the pins and collect all of the bones without knocking down your cheerful audience.
Find out more about the games above and check out this week’s other must-have game, Tiki Towers 2, after the break!
Apple has just announced the winner of the App Store’s 10 billionth download sweepstakes.
The 10 billionth app was downloaded by Gail Davis of Orpington, Kent, UK.
Gail downloaded the free Paper Glider app, netting her a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card.
Congrats Gail!
BTW: Looks like reader @Jack predicted the correct time frame in an earlier post trying to predict when the 10 billionth app would be downloaded.
NOTE: This is a guest post by ex-PC user Mike Wilson. It was originally published at Gears of Biz.
I have a MacBook at home and a Mac Mini at work. I absolutely love my Macs. I can’t live with out them. However, there are still things I hate about my Macs that I wished weren’t a part of my life. So don’t hate me for taking a couple shots at my machines… It’s all in good fun.
Below are those Top 5 things I hate about the Mac.
