Cult of Mac

Let’s dispel here and now any notion that the next great guitar solo or hit record will be produced or recorded using Apple’s mobile devices or the myriad amplifier emulating and recording applications available for them today.

Will. Not. Happen.

That said, for the casual music enthusiast and app dabbler, a few interesting peripheral/app combinations continue to highlight the versatility of Apple’s mobile development platform — and point the way to a future in which talented individuals won’t have to invest thousands of dollars in equipment and studio time in order to produce professional sounding music recordings.

We’ve spent the past several weeks playing with three of these, from Agile Partners, Frontier Design Group, and IK Multimedia. Our report contains a decidedly mixed bag.

James McCluskey was so peeved about having his backpack stolen — containing a brand-new iPad — that he turned detective to find the crooks.

McCluskey left his backpack in the office parking lot mid-morning in Onehunga, New Zealand. (There was no explanation of why he left this catnip to crooks unattended. It’s the probably the most common way iGadgets get stolen.)

Two women reportedly smashed the car windows, grabbed his backpack and sped off. The victim, a 22-year-old logistics coordinator, managed to jot down the license plate number. The backpack contained an iPad, hard drive and other personal belongings estimated at around $1,500.

He reported the theft to police, but also took matters into his own hands. Perhaps knowing that thefts from cars are the least likely to be solved (in New Zealand the resolution rate is a dismal 3.3 per cent), he tracked down the license plate number through a $2 post office search.

Then things got a little hairy for the would-be detective: McCluskey tracked down the person whose name was listed on the registration, 17-year-old Christine Wilson.

This week’s must-have iOS games features one of the best 2D platformers yet for the iPhone, GTA goodness in high-definition and golfing that claims to be as real as it gets. There’s also some pooping pigeons thrown in for good measure!

Check out a few of our favorite games from the past week after the break.

This weeks must-have iOS apps include Nike’s latest to help you track your run stats, professional HTML emails on your iPhone with MarkdownMail, quick and easy invoice creation for your business, and AppShopper’s new app that helps you keep track of the App Store.

Check out a few of our favorite apps from the past week after the break!

Celebrating the release to manufacture of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft employees held a mock funeral Friday for the iPhone and Blackberry on their Redmond campus:

Employees dressed up in fancy dress and also modified cars to include Windows Phone branding. Aside from the crazy outfits the workers made fake hearses for giant BlackBerry and iPhone devices. Employees cheekily claimed they had buried the competition with Windows Phone 7. [Neowin]

Mourners and pallbearers were seen holding signs such as “Windows Phone 7 OS Platform buries the competition” and performed a funereal dance to Michael Jackson’s Thriller as part of the remembrances.

The latest iPhone Killer launches on October 11.  Is it too early to call this another premature obituary?

[via AppleInsider]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfFfqMR6uK0

The iPad has made the consumption of digital media revolutionary and more than likely it spells out the demise of printed newspapers. It won’t be long before you’re reaching for your iPad instead of the newspaper, but is that a good thing? I’d say, “Yes,”  because the iPad will you let view content in more exciting formats, search your content, and generally do a whole lot more with it.

There’s only one drawback to replacing a newspaper with an iPad and that is demonstrated in Newsday’s new advertisement for its first iPad app and I’ll let that video speak for itself. It is the perfect humorous ending to a long work week.

The Bundleeicious folks are back with a $10 bundle of six Mac apps, worth over $100 if each were bought separately.

Included are the $29 iDatabase, a database app that has a companion iPhone app (available separately for $3) and Punakea, a $25 app that allows users to organize files with tags.

The bundle will be around for nine more days before disappearing. Hit the jump for a preview of what else is included:

We wrap up the week with plenty of iPhone and iPad deals. The day’s highlighted bargains start off with a new list of marked-down iPad apps, including a great deal on a talking book of Beatrice Potter stories for the kids. We also have a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook for just $850. Naturally, we can’t omit the iPhone game, so there’s a deal on “Shoot the Magic,” a shoot ’em up for the Apple handset.

If you’d like something beefier than a MacBook, there are two Mac Pro workstations. The first is a 4-core 2.66GHz Xeon workstation for $2,099. The other Mac Pro sports an 8-core 2.26GHz system along with 12GB of memory and three years of AppleCare from ExperComm for $3,149. A desktop which fits somewhere between a MacBook and a Mac Pro workstation is the iMac. There is a 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo iMac with 27-inch display and AppleCare for $1,599.

Along the way, we’ll also check out cases for your iPhone, as well as a solar charger. As always, details on these and many other items are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.

Apple claims the flaky proximity sensor in the iPhone 4 has been fixed by the iOS 4.1 update. But there’s mounting evidence that the proximity sensor isn’t fixed at all.

I’ve done a variety of tests on my iPhone and the sensor just flat-out isn’t working for me at times. I’ve performed a test by standing in front of a mirror in a dimly lit room and observed the sensor not working and behaving erratically.

Meanwhile, iPhone user Ryan Bell has performed a series of comprehensive tests using Apple’s iPhone configuration utility, and finds that iOS 4.1 doesn’t fix the proximity sensor. 

The proximity sensor problems are being blamed on software bugs, relocation of the proximity sensor due to the addition of the front facing camera, or greasy ear canals.

But now that the iOS 4.1 update has been released to the masses, we’ve all became iPhone 4 proximity sensor beta testers. Together, we can crowdsource testing of Apple’s claims.

So clean out your ear canals, screw that iPhone 4 to your ear for a while, make a few phone calls, and share the results of your tests with that utility in the comments. (Perhaps you could monitor the proximity sensor using the Configuration Utility, as we showed you here.)

Please let us know by voting in the poll below whether or not the update fixed the problems you’ve had with the proximity sensor in the iPhone 4. Vote below — is the proximity fixed or not?

[polldaddy poll=”3714664″]

Finnish cell phone giant Nokia Friday picked a former Microsoft software head to lead what it termed a ‘renewal and transformation’ in the face of increasing pressure from Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android platform. Stephen Elop, former leader of Microsoft’s Business Division, will assume the CEO chair from outgoing Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo September 21.

“The time is right to accelerate the company’s renewal; to bring in new executive leadership with different skills and strengths in order to drive company success,” Jorma Ollila, Chairman of Nokia’s Board of Directors, announced. Elop’s “strong software background and proven record in change management will be valuable assets as we press harder to complete the transformation of the company,” he added.

The upward climb for Android-based phones seems to just continue. Google’s mobile operating system is expected to be the No. 2 mobile operating system in 2010 and could reach No. 1 by 2014, researchers announced Friday. Meanwhile, the open-source cell phone OS will pass Apple’s iOS and Research in Motion.

According to Gartner, Android-based handsets will garner 17.5 percent of the market in 2010, up sharply from 3.9 percent in 2009. Apple’s iOS will own 15.4 percent of the market this year, up from 14.4 percent of the market in 2009. By 2012, the research firm expects Android will closely challenge Nokia’s Symbian OS as market-leader with 29.6 percent of the market versus 30.2 percent for Symbian.

Apple may not be as happy with Intel’s decision to buy iPhone chipmaker Infineon as we were early told. The rumor mills are churning out this intriguing speculation: Apple may turn to Qualcomm to build its iPhone 5, a “world phone” able to support more network technology.

Choice of baseband chips, the component used to “talk” to mobile networks, is often a hint to what carriers a handset-maker plans to support. By picking Qualcomm over Infineon, Apple may signal its intention to open its popular cell phone to players besides AT&T.

Ever been singing along to a new song and wondered just what the heck the lyrics really are? Searching for the lyrics on the internet isn’t the fastest of solutions to avoid lyric confusion. Here we’re going to show you how to utilize scripts and a widget to search out the lyrics for all of the songs in your iTunes library and automatically save them to song’s meta data, so that next time you can correct your friend when they sing “where’s my Asian friend,” when the lyrics really are, “what’s my age again.”

The classic Grand Theft Auto 3 trilogy — including Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas — is finally coming to OS X later this year, according to Rockstar Games.

Look for the long-awaited release of the classic Grand Theft Auto Trilogy (Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas) for Mac – most likely later this year.  We’ll have much more info and a proper announcement soon. 

It’s about time, but don’t mistake the release of these titles as Rockstar finally getting serious about a commitment to Mac. The PC versions of the latest game we are talking about here — the superlative San Andreas — is well over five years old, which means it’ll run just dandy with a Wine translation layer on a modern Mac. Still, something’s better than nothing, although at this point, I’d be happier if they ported Bully.

Heartened by Apple’s recent decision to loosen their restriction on outside frameworks for the development of iOS apps, Adobe has announced that it will be resuming work on its Flash-to-iPhone compiler.

Apple’s announcement today that it has lifted restrictions on its third-party developer guidelines has direct implications for Adobe’s Packager for iPhone, a feature in the Flash Professional CS5 authoring tool. This feature was created to enable Flash developers to quickly and easily deliver applications for iOS devices. The feature is available for developers to use today in Flash Professional CS5, and we will now resume development work on this feature for future releases.

Meant to be a headlining technology in their Flash CS5 software, Adobe was forced to abandon development of the compiler after a change to Apple’s iPhone Developer Program License Agreement prohibited the use of translation tools in app development.

Apple’s change of heart again makes development in Flash — if not Flash on iOS proper — a viable option again, and is a rare victory for Adobe in their conflict with Apple.

Last year, Apple pulled Google Voice’s official application from the App Store without either ceremony or explanation. The move always seemed pretty suspect, and intended more to protect the interests of AT&T than iOS users, but it seems that there is good news on the horizon: Google Voice is likely heading back to the App Store.

According to the developer of the third-party Google Voice application GV Mobile, he emailed Apple’s approval board after the release of yesterday’s App Store guidelines, pointing out there seemed to be no provision at all explaining a Google Voice ban, and asking what the chances were of getting his app reinstated. Apparently, the response was encouraging, and Kovacs was led to believe that if he resubmitted his app, it would likely be improved.

On Google’s part, they say they have nothing to announce at this time, but if third–party Google Voice applications start getting approved again, it’s very likely the official app will soon possible. Let’s hope that Kovac’s exchange wasn’t a fluke and Apple has come around on its senseless ban against Voice once and for all.

The moment Steve Jobs quipped about the new Nano’s perfect suitability as a time piece, we all all recognized the obvious accessory void that would quickly be filled: iPod Nano watch bands.

Here’s the first: a 22mm Maratac Nylon band that will slip through your nano’s clip and comes in matching colors for just $17.

The wisdom of tethering your headphones to your wrist is, of course, debatable, as is the necessity of charging your wristwatch once per day, but if you’re so inclined, it’s now just a Jackson away from being done.

iTunes is huge, and getting huger every day… but so are its operating costs. According to a new report by Asymco, iTunes is pushing almost a billion dollars a year to run.

Currently, Apple’s iTunes operating costs come in at $75 million a month, which is two and a half times what it cost to run iTunes just last year. Multiply that by twelve and you have the yearly budget.

Right now, iTunes is only $100 million shy of the $1 billion mark, but if you assume iTunes will continue to grow at 2009’s rate, iTunes might just cost Apple over $2.25 billion to keep afloat by the end of 2011. Somehow I’m guessing they’ll be able to afford it.

[via 9to5Mac]

All Mac applications and system functions have preferences, but there are often more options available than are accessible via the User Interface.  Using the Terminal in Mac OS X in conjunction with the defaults write command, you can control behavior of the Finder, iTunes, etc. in ways that you otherwise can’t.

We noted the use of this command with the iTunes 10 button fix last week:
defaults write com.apple.iTunes full-window 1

Following is a list of some other useful commands I’ve compiled which will work in Snow Leopard.

QuickLook is a system for quickly previewing files as you browse around your computer. It’s really easy to use, and personally I find it invaluable. Not a day goes by when I don’t use it at least once.

Apple is once again friends with Google, at least as far as mobile ads go.

Google says its wholeheartedly approves of Apple’s relaxation of its mobile advertising policy. The old policy effectively locked out Google’s AdMob platform from in-app advertising on the iPhone and iPad.

Apple’s new terms will open up in-app advertising to competitors and enable advertising systems that work across a range of platforms (IE. iPhone and Android), Google says.

“This is great news for everyone in the mobile community, as we believe that a competitive environment is the best way to drive innovation and growth in mobile advertising. Mobile advertising has already helped to fund tens of thousands of mobile apps across many different platforms and devices, and it will help do the same for many more in the years ahead.”

Google: An Update on Apple’s Terms of Service

Rockstar Games’ superb iOS entry into their infamous Grand Theft Auto series has finally hit the iPad with Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars HD, a native port that improves the already superlative game’s lighting, polygon counts and even the games’ already impressive explosions.

The biggest advantage, though, is the controls: while an up-sampled Chinatown Wars was technically playable (if ugly) before, the control scheme really needed some tweaking for more adept thumb control. The new iPad accomplishes that quite nicely.

Ultimately, it’s a fine update… but it’s hard to recommend because it’s not a universal app. Instead, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars HD is a whole new $9.99 to spend on a game you probably already own, if you were interested at all to begin with, on the iPhone, Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. If this is your first go at the title, though, Chinatown Wars is an easy recommendation: it’s one of the best games on the App Store.

Most of the restrictions in Apple’s new App Store guidelines make perfect sense. Who wants apps that drain the battery? There are commonsense bans on hate speech, objectionable material and gambling.

But there are two restrictions that might cause problems: rejecting apps in categories that are already crowded (fart apps), and pornography.

What do you think? Should Apple approve fart apps and porn and let us make our own choices?

[polldaddy poll=3740789]

With their usual amalgam of surgical precision, egghead obsessiveness and rock star attitude, the boys at iFixIt have sliced into the last of Apple’s new iPods: the touchscreen iPod nano. And, like we thought, it’s really more of a Shuffle with a screen than a nano with multitouch.

It’s the claims of multitouch that really sticks in the iFixIt boys’ craws: they claim, rightly, that multitouch is officially determined by being able to detect and resolve a minimum of three touch points, where as the nano only employs two… and even then, only for rotating the display, “although how anyone is supposed to comfortably fit more than one finger on the display is a mystery.”

Other interesting facts: the battery is twice the capacity of the Shuffle’s to power the screen, and the display has the most dense packing of pixels this side of the Retina Display on the iPhone 4 or iPod Touch. Additionally, the glass on the touch isn’t quite flush with the case, but sticks out 0.3mm due to the size of the headphone jack. It’s a pretty interesting commentary on how tiny and compact the innards of the new nano are when the headphone jack is one of the thickest components… and perhaps how anal Apple is about device thinness when they’d rather the glass protrude from their device minutely than minutely expand the body.

You can find iFixIt’s full teardown here.

First up is a deal on a 2GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook – just $869. Next we have a Neoprene sleeve for the iPad in orange/blue. We wrap up our highlighted deals with Warfire, a tank-fighting game for the iPhone and iPod touch.

Along the way, we’ll also check out several hardware deals, including the Mac mini, iPod touch and iPod shuffle. As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.