This app requires practically a Best Buy full of hardware: not just an iPhone, a TV and a Wii as well. But if you’re already set up — or eager enough to run out and pop for the hardware because of this app — for $3, WiiPhoto will connect the dots and let you display photos on your TV from the iPhone via a wifi connection.
The app will also let users pull images from a Flickr, Facebook or SmugMug account, or from a Mac attached to the same local network, and throw them up on the screen — with all these sources easily accessed from within the app. Pretty cool idea for easy image-surfing from the couch.
Apple has acquired an exclusive license to use Liquidmetal’s space-age metal alloys in consumer electronic products, a filing with the SEC reveals.
Developed literally in space by NASA, Liquidmetal’s alloys are super-strong, felxible metals that are incredibly light and flexible, and yet can be cast in factories like plastic.
In the same way that the inventions of steel in the 1800s and plastic in the 1900s sparked revolutions for industry, a new class of amorphous alloys is poised to redefine materials science as we know it in the 21st century.
Welcome to the 3rd Revolution, otherwise known as the era of Liquidmetal alloys, where metals behave similar to plastics but possess more than twice the strength of high-performance titanium.
Liquidmetals belong to the class of “glassy metals,” and have already been used in golf clubs and tennis rackets, as well as CE products like a USB memory stick from SanDisk and a high-end cell phone from Vertu. The U.S. Department of Defense is looking at a range of uses, including replacing uranium-tipped armor piercing munitions with Liquidmetals.
It’s unclear what Apple might do with the Liquidmetal license, but a good guess is for casings in future iPhones, iPods and iPads.
Because of the alloys’ high strength, iPhone and iPad cases could be super thin and very light. They would be scatch-proof and corrosion-resistant.
Plus, they could be molded into intricate and unusual shapes: a property that is sure to appeal to Jonny Ive.
Want to play a bunch of imaginary drums in the air around you? Who doesn’t! Buy an iPhone 4.
That’s right, developer Logic Consulting has created an app called Gyro Air Drums that leverages the iPhone 4’s gyroscope to create a virtual drum kit positioned in a two-tier, 300-degree arc around the user, then turns the iPhone itself into the drumstick. The $3 set includes a snare, hi-hat, hi and low toms, a finger-controlled bass pedal, the all-important cowbell and even a taiko drum
Judging by the demo in the clip above, the app isn’t sophisticated enough for any Dave Grohl-style drumming delight, and you’ll still look like a dork, waving your iPhone around — but it doesn’t matter; the idea is so cool, you’ll get dates anyway.
Isn’t it weird that when we see something at the store for $2.99, we don’t spend much time figuring out whether we should buy it, but when it’s a mobile app, we definitely hesitate. Maybe it’s because we don’t get a good chance to demo the product before we purchase. But, Cult of Mac takes away all of that hesitation, because we give away premium iPad and iPhone apps ALL THE TIME! We’ll pick 5 random winners to win 6 great apps. If you want a chance to get your hands on some great apps this week, then follow the instructions carefully below:
Follow us on Twitter (you must do this, if you’re not following us, we can’t contact you if you win).
Tweet this: @cultofmac and @appular are hooking us up with killer iPhone and iPad apps! #cultofmac
Your tweet will be your entry into the giveaway, only ONE entry is allowed per person, and the giveaway will last until 11:59pm tonight. We’ll contact the winners on Tuesday or Wednesday and how to get the codes!
Optional step – Tell us what you think about these apps if you own them already in the comments section.
Special Thanks to Appular for helping us put together these app code giveaways! If you’ve got a mobile app that you’d like marketed effectively, contact the good folks at Appular!
The Apple Store went down this morning, and when it came back up, Apple had given us all a depressingly good excuse to give them five grand: their new 12-core Mac Pros.
Even the minimum specs for this thing are eyeball melting: two 2.66GHz hecacore Xeon Westmere CPUs, 6GB of memory, an eighteen-speed dual-layer SuperDrive and an ATI Radeon HD 5770 GPU with 1GB of DDR5 memory.
Prices start at $4999.99, but I was able to spec one close to $15,000 with all the bells and whistles before my eyeballs bugged out of my sockets. Shipping is in seven to ten business days, so get ordering
While Apple’s own iPad Camera Connection Kit comes with two different attachments to juggle between USB and SD connectivity, but look at this piece of kit the Chinese are rocking: a $26 two-in-one dongle that allows you to switch between SD and USB with just the push of a button. Why can’t we get something this slick officially, Apple?
Look, we’ve all been burned by the Verizon iPhone rumor before, but we’re really starting to think that a CDMA iPhone 4 is coming sooner rather than later. Consider these three separate stories surfacing this morning.
First, we have this story from Techcrunch, claiming that a CDMA iPhone is due in January:
Sources with knowledge of this entire situation have assured me that Apple has submitted orders for millions of units of Qualcomm CDMA chipsets for a Verizon iPhone run due in December.
Next up is this AT&T SEC filing which hints very strongly that their iPhone exclusive is nearing an end. The filing contains an entire section dedicated to the risks involved when “exclusivity agreements end,” as well as assurances to shareholders that the loss of the iPhone isn’t a “material negative impact.” This all reads like a company that sees the writing on the wall.
Finally, consider this Digitimes story, claiming that a CDMA iPhone will go into mass production in December by Pegatron, who will supply the resulting handsets to both Verizon Wireless and China Telecom.
Like I said, we’ve all been burned on the Verizon iPhone rumor before… but there’s a lot more scuttlebutt swirling around this time than usual. More importantly, even though all these intel reports have different sources, the details are lining up: AT&T’s exclusive is ending by the end of the year, and a CDMA iPhone will be available in January.
If you are unhappy with AT&T’s service and your contract is coming up, it might behoove you to hold off on renewing it for the time being.
From Steve Jobs’ promise to ship millions of FaceTime capable “iOS devices” this year to a leaked iPod Touch front plate with a front-facing camera hole, the imminent release of a FaceTime-capable iPod Touch is looking more likely by the moment.
The latest evidence? Confirming earlier rumors about how FaceTime would be handled on the next gen iPod Touch, MacRumors has discovered that the latest beta of iOS 4.1 supports email-based FaceTime initiation.
I’ve been banking on an iPod Touch capable of FaceTime ever since the iPhone 4’s release, but now I’m really beginning to wonder if we won’t see that device in the next couple of weeks. Take the existence of email-based FaceTime in iOS 4.1 beta 3 and combine it with Apple’s seeming slowness in releasing a fix for iOS 4.0.1’s PDF security vulnerability and today’s rumor that the next iPod event will happen next week, and I think what we’re looking at here is an update to iOS 4.1 timed around the imminent release of a new iPod Touch. What do you think?
Comex has done it again. The man behind the popular Spirit and JailbreakMe jailbreaks has successfully ported Flash to the iPhone 4.
The Android-to-iOS flash port, called Frash, was first unveiled last month, but this is the first time it’s been available for the iPhone 4. The instructions for installing it aren’t exactly noob-friendly, but either way, this is Steve Jobs’ worst nightmare come true: Flash running on any modern iOS device capable of being jailbroken.
Of course, the man never said that it couldn’t be done, just that it shouldn’t be done… and watching the video above, we have to agree. While Frash seems to work well enough, it’s noticeably slow, especially in loading new Flash videos. That kind of stuttery performance is simply anathema to Apple’s principles… well, unless you’re running iOS 4 on an iPhone 3G, that is.
Apple’s annual iPod media event is traditionally held in September, but according to Brazilian Mac site Mac Magazine, they might hold it a bit early this year.
According to MacMagazine’s “reliable source within Apple,” Cupertino plans to refresh their iPod line and unveil the next-generation iPod Touch as soon as mid-August, with a date of August 16th or August 17th being cited as the most likely dates.
Mac Rumors points out that if these rumors are true, this iPod event date also aligns with a claimed August 17th release date for iLife ’11, although it’s not entirely clear how that product’s release would fit in with a strongly-focused iPod announcement.
Given that Apple has yet to send out invites for their iPod event, that date might seem suspiciously near, but it’s plausible: Apple has traditionally given only a week’s lead time to the press when throwing their iPod events. Last year, the invite for their “It’s Only Rock and Roll” iPod Event came with just nine days worth of lead time, and in 2008, Apple sent out the invites just seven days before the event. If this rumor is true, then, expect official press invites to start landing in the next day or two.
>Back in 2008, Apple wanted chip design guru Mark Papermaster so much that they actually got into a lawsuit with IBM over him. A mere fifteen months later, though, Papermaster has left his position of Senior VP of Devices Hardware Engineering at Apple… and all signs point to Papermaster having been canned.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Papermaster had a a “falling out” with Steve Jobs over Apple’s corporate culture, and has lost Jobs’ confidence months ago.
As Daring Fireball’s John Gruber points out, that seems to be consistent with external evidence: namely, despite the fact that Papermaster was in charge of the iPhone 4’s hardware, he is nowhere to be seen in Apple’s iPhone 4 promotional videos. Nor was he on stage during Apple’s “Antennagate” press conference.
Rather, in both instances, Papermaster’s ostensible subordinate, Bob Mansfield, took his place to talk in detail about the iPhone 4’s hardware. No surprise, then, that Mansfield has now been promoted into Papermaster’s now vacant position.
Ultimately, this seems to be a case of a square peg not being able to fit into an Apple-shaped hole.
The most interesting detail of this story is the fact that Papermaster was not fired by Jobs over the iPhone 4’s antenna issues. In fact, according to Gruber, the iPhone 4’s antenna issues were ticked as a bug over two years ago, and Steve Jobs himself gave the okay on releasing the handset as designed, believing the “death grip” issue to be comparable to antenna-issues on other smartphones.
Osmos for iPad is a unique game for Apple’s new platform. It reminds me a little bit of Spore from Electronic Arts, but only a little. I got bored with Spore on my Mac and iPhone pretty quickly, but I cannot say the same about Osmos.
The app makes good use of the iPad’s graphic abilities, touchscreen interface, and audio hardware. The latter provides nice music and sound effects that make playing the game for long periods of time enjoyable. However, the rapidly changing game play, that made me feel immersed in a totally new gaming experience, was what really made me fall in love with this game.
I’ve been using Apple’s Magic Trackpad for just over a week, and I can confidently say it’s replaced the mouse for me.
The Magic Trackpad is easier to use, much more functional than even a multibutton mouse, and possibly less prone to causing repetitive strain injuries.
We wrap up another week with three hardware deals. First up is an 8GB iPod touch for $149. Next is a 24-inch LED Cinema Display for $709. Our last highlighted deal for the day is a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro with two years of AppleCare for $1,598 from Expercomm.
Along the way, we’ll also check out new software for your iPhone and Mac. As always, details on these and many other items are available after the jump.
You’ve still got a day to bid the 32GB iPod, at this writing there were 34 bids and a ceiling of $449. However, this isn’t the first time one has cropped up on eBay, the last one for sale in April was pulled shortly after it made news.
The iPod with camera prototype will probably be a museum piece, but you may have trouble using it — the device doesn’t come with the as-yet unreleased camera software. (duh).
If you’ve wondered why there isn’t a smaller iPod nano or a cheaper MacBook Air notebook, someone at Apple must have read your mind. The Cupertino, Calif. company may unveil those new products in September, according to a prominent analyst.
BMO Capital’s Keith Bachman expects Apple will unveil two new iPods – a new Touch and a new Nano. The Nano will be “much smaller” than previous versions and will omit the track wheel, according to the analyst. The introduction of a small Nano may mean we’ll be waving goodbye to the Shuffle.
Nearly a year after the iPhone’s introduction in China, Apple’s telecom partner in the Asian giant will begin offering a Wi-Fi version. China Unicom announced it will begin selling Monday the 8GB iPhone 3GS with Wi-Fi.
The 16- and 32-gigabyte non-Wi-Fi versions of the 3GS will also still be for sale.
Another Foxconn worker has died. While all deaths should be mourned, the death of a 22-year-old female apparently happened in a factory known to package and ship the Apple iPod touch device. Foxconn, recently dubbed the largest electronics parts maker, announced the death “was not worker related.”
Although Foxconn denies this latest death is work-related, local police are reportedly investigating the incident.
If you can’t imagine facing your daily commute without an iPod, you’re in good company.
Katie Spotz set a world record for being the youngest person ever to row the Atlantic Ocean solo from Africa to South America. She credits the iPod for keeping her motivation levels up as she paddled her way across the waters.
On her 70-day 2,800-mile journey, Katie brought along six iPods — four nanos, an iPod shuffle and an iPod touch so that she could watch a movie once a week.
Not knowing your Mac’s password is like locking yourself out of the house; it’s inconvenient (at best) and always happens at the worst possible time. In our efforts to shield information from others we often wind up just blocking access for ourselves. Fortunately there are several ways to reset your Mac password when amnesia strikes or relevant information isn’t available.
Some methods of resetting your password can affect access to the keychain, however, where many of your other passwords are stored. Nothing in life is free…
Steam for Mac is great and all, but after an impressive launch of Mac titles, the stream of new OS X games has slacked to a mere trickle.
Don’t expect that to change anytime soon. In a new interview with Gamesindustry.biz, Valve says that we probably can’t expect developers to make a concerted effort to bringing their in-progress titles to the Mac until 2011.
“People are looking at their titles for this holiday and saying ‘a Mac version would screw with my schedule, or I’d have to ship it late. Neither of those is super-desirable. But the titles that I have in Spring of 2011 or in Holiday of 2011, let’s have a discussion and let’s see those numbers and start to figure it out,” said Valve’s Doug Lombardi.
The good news is that it seems game developers do want to support the Mac. The bad news is that Steam for Mac took them a bit by surprise, and so we’re probably looking at slim pickings in native Mac ports until sometime next year.
A few times a year, some dusty old Beatle pops up out of his crypt, coughs out a centipede and tells us that they really want to bring their catalogue to iTunes and it’s coming soon, honest.
Now John Lennon’s infamous wife has emerged from her Black Pyramid and recited the incantation that transforms her into Yoko-Ono The Ever-Living. She doesn’t blame EMI: she basically just says Steve Jobs is messing things up by not paying them enough money.
“Steve Jobs has his own idea and he’s a brilliant guy. There’s just an element that we’re not very happy about, as people. We are holding out,” Yoko said.
“Don’t hold your breath… for anything,” she then ominously added, punctuating the implied threat with a maniacal cackle before returning to her mausoleum to plot the attainment of the fabled Sword of Omens.
Sure, everyone’s grateful that Apple got around to divorcing their gorgeous 2560×1440 display panel from the 27-inch iMac and selling it on its own, but it came at a cost: they discontinued their 30-inch Cinema Display in the same stroke.
It’s a bummer, and we know this will be small comfort, but if you miss the 30-inch Cinema Display, Dell will soon be shipping a monster of a 30-inch display of their own christened the U3011, containing a 10-bit IPS panel boasting the old Cinema Display’s 2560 x 1600 resolution and mustering a 10,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio and a 270cd/m2 brightness rating, with ports including VGA, two DVI ins, one component, two HDMIs and DisplayPort.
Dell’s actually responsible for some of the better monitor buys out there, and the U3011 looks like it might be a good successor to the classic 30-inch Cinema Display… if you can stomach the usual gross Dell design aesthetic on your desktop. It should be out in October for an unknown price.
At first, I didn’t quite understand WaterField’s press release, announcing a new line of attractive cases specifically designed to ensconce your new Magic Trackpad.
Hey, there’s no denying it: these cases are nice. The $12 Socket is a simple padded pouch that will protect your Magic Trackpad’s glass surface from key scratches and the like, while the $25 Slip is a ballistic nylon case with a lightly padded liner and multiple trim options. Like I said, nice…. but who is taking their Magic Trackpad on the road with them? It’s a desktop device: your MacBook already has a Magic Trackpad built into it.
I was ready to delegate this conundrum to the Department of Redundancy Department, but then I actually opened my MacBook for the first time in a couple of weeks and realized how luxurious that 80% larger Magic Trackpad really is. It’s pretty hard to go back…and don’t even get me started about the postage stamp sized trackpad of my Hackintosh netbook. So maybe I do want to take my Magic Trackpad out on the road. I guess that means I need a case.
Wish Jonny Ive’s aesthetic sense was more like an old flea-market VCR? A mere $25 will get you one of Karvt’s wood-panel iPhone 4 skins, coming in flavors of dead tree flesh ranging from bamboo to cherry and from walnut to pine.
Now if only someone would just come up with a musty orange shag bumper and my iPhone 4 would be the spitting image of my creepier grandma’s basement.
