Maybe it was the recent high temps which struck the U.S. East Coast, but a lawsuit now claims Apple’s wildly-popular iPad tablet device just can’t stand the heat. In a complaint filed July 23, lawyers claim the iPad “overheats so quickly under common weather conditions” and “does not live up to the reasonable consumer’s expectations created by Apple.”
The lawsuit also claims when placed in direct sunlight, the iPad “turns off, sometimes after just a few minutes of use.” Filed in a federal court in Oakland, California, the lawsuit seeks class-action status, as well as unspecified damages.
This morning the Apple Store is down and backs up rumours that product updates and introductions could be imminent.
Rumors have circulated recently about updates to the iMac and the Mac Pro, as well as the introduction of a 27-inch Cinema Display and a “Magic Trackpad“.
We’re not sure yet whether new products will appear, but this is a good sign. It’s also typical of Apple to release/update products on a Tuesday.
We’ll keep our eye on the Apple Store and be sure to inform you when it’s back up and if there’s new goodies to check out!
Now shipping for the Mac, the Warpia Easy Dock promises to divorce your MacBook from the myriad cables usually deployed at your working station.
Simply slap the Warpia wireless dongle into your Mac and it’ll wirelessly connect you to a keyboard and mouse. Better, it’ll also bridge you to your external speakers and even an external monitor, as long as it ranges between fifteen and twenty one inches and maxes out at a resolution of 1440 x 1040. In fact, the wireless monitor latency is good enough to stream 720p HD video from your MacBook to an external monitor.
Interested? You can purchase the Warpia Easy Dock online for just online. About the only thing it won’t do wirelessly is the power.
Bringing your iPad on the road and want more juice than its 10 hour spec? Battery maker Sanho have you covered: their new HyperMac Stand for iPad will add an additional 16 hours to your mobile time.
The HyperMac Stand is a rectangular block in which your iPad can be slotted at an 18 degree angle, perfect for typing. It contains an 1100mAH, 40Wh battery that will charge your iPad even when it’s away from an AC outlet, as well as pass-through charging and syncing.
The price? $130. That sounds a bit steep at first, but given the combined price of both a stand and an external battery, a moment’s reflection makes it a loss less hard to swallow.
Although seventeen more countries will be getting the iPhone 4 at the end of this week, South Korea’s not one of them… and it’s getting a lot of airplay in Seoul, with Steve Jobs being explicitly called a liar by the South Korean press.
The issue isn’t really the delay, so much, but a comment by Steve Jobs saying: “It’s going to take us a little longer to get government approval [for the iPhone 4 in South Korea].”
In actuality, government approval doesn’t seem to be the issue. In fact, the Korean government says that the iPhone 4 has yet to be submitted for approval to the proper channels, either by Apple or their local carrier partner, KT Corp.
The government statement has sparked some confrontational headlines. “Jobs lied, didn’t he?” one local newspaper wrote.
Are you one of the millions of AT&T customers afflicted by terrible 3G upload speeds brought about by buggy Alcatel-Lucent HSUPA hardware? AT&T has announced that they have begun working on a fix.
Good news, but of course, this is AT&T, and after taking several weeks to examine the problem, they will be proceeding with the fix at their usual glacial pace: it will take an additional two to three weeks to fully resolve.
The fantastic Mac and iOS password managing application 1Password has just gotten a fantastic little upgrade, finally bringing cloud synchronization between 1Password for Mac and 1Password Pro for iOS.
While 1Password has long been able to sync your passwords between your Mac and your iPhone, the process was a bit convoluted: you needed to use WiFi, and you needed to make sure the 1Password app was open while near your computer to suck down your data.
However, the new 3.3 update to 1Password for Mac and the 3.5 update to 1Password Pro for iOS brought Dropbox support to the mix, and the syncing process has become a lot more straight forward.
It’s a fantastic update. It’s just too bad that 1Password Pro is so expensive. 1Password is one of the easiest ways to keep your various online accounts secure, but the $14.99 price on the Dropbox syncable “Pro” version is probably a pretty big barrier to entry for most.
If you bank through Citibank on your iPhone, you might want to update it now: the Wall Street Journal is reporting that there is a security vulnerability in the last version of the Citi Mobile app that saves personal account information in a hidden file.
This hidden file contains information about account numbers, security access codes and bill payment information. While it can’t be accessed remotely, it could conceivably be accessed through a Mac or PC upon being connected by USB cable… particularly if the device is jailbroken.
“We have no reason to believe that our customers’ personal information has been accessed or used inappropriately by anyone,” Citi has said, while simultaneously releasing an updated version of the app that fixes the problem.
Shares of DVR-manufacturer TiVo jumped about 5% yesterday after rumors swirled that the company’s next tech revision might get included on the next Apple TV.
It’s a pretty silly rumor. Apple has made it clear time and time again that they want to own the core technology of their devices. Unless Apple sees fit to buy TiVo, then, I don’t see it happening. In fact, why would Apple allow television recording on the AppleTV to begin with? If the AppleTV ever makes the leap from hobby device to serious initiative, it’ll be because Apple wants to give consumers a cheap, set-top box to conduct iTunes purchases.
I just don’t see it. The most compelling rumor right now is that the next AppleTV will run iOS and stream through the cloud. I don’t think TiVo is going to become an Apple partner with the next AppleTV: I think they’ll become even more of a competitor than they are now.
Your life is on your iPhone, so if you want to share it with friends, family and co-workers, what’s better than capturing what’s on your iPhone screen? ScreenRecorder for iPhone is a Cydia application that captures your iPhone screen — be it a tutorial, demo or demonstration — with the tap of a finger. Here’s Cult of Mac’s step-by-step guide of how this paid app works.
Although the iPhone does allow you to setup a lockscreen passcode, it doesn’t give much flexibility in choosing one, allowing you to set only a four-digit passcode. If that doesn’t pass your security test, here’s how to set passcode your ex won’t be able to guess. NB: If you haven’t upgraded to iOS4, this tutorial on setting up a lockscreen passcode is for you.
If you accidentally updated your jailbroken iPhone 3GS, you cannot simply downgrade it by restoring to an older version of the firmware (even in DFU mode) because of an added layer of security by Apple.
However, if you have a previously jailbroken iPhone 3GS, there’s a possibility that Cydia saved some files called SHSHs to help you bypass this added security. Cult of Mac’s how-to guide will help you do it.
The Backgrounder app makes running multiple apps on your iPhone easier than juggling your daily schedule. Do keep in mind that running too many apps will slow down your device and suck the life out of its battery a lot quicker.
Still, Backgrounder is a great gratis app we’re glad to have handy. Here’s Cult of Mac’s guide to how it works.
Unless you jailbreak your iPhone, the file system will remain off limits as Apple intended. Even so, many people who jailbreak their phones stop with Cydia. There are, however, a few reasons you might want access to the file system on your device. SSH allows you to do just that using a Wi-Fi connection and a suitable Mac or PC client.
It can come in handy should you need to install something that’s not directly available on Cydia, think beta apps, etc.
Here’s Cult of Mac’s how-to guide to get you started.
If you’re going to jailbreak your iPhone or iPad, before you get started, we highly recommend you backup your device’s SHSH blobs.
With the release of iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch G3, Apple added an extra layer of security to prevent hacking, jailbreaking and unlocking. Apple is constantly closing the exploits used by jailbreak hackers by updating the firmware of its iPhone/iPt and iPad. If you accidentally upgrade your jailbroken device to Apple’s latest firmware, you can’t re-jailbreak it until hackers release new jailbreak software.
If you haven’t upgraded to iOS4, this app will allow you to access multiple Microsoft Exchange accounts on your iPhone, keeping your work and personal email and calendar info etc. always at hand. Here’s Cult of Mac’s how-to guide to getting started using the AddExchange application which allows you to add multiple Exchange accounts available from Cydia.
The iPhone, as Steve Jobs pointed out in his 4.0 keynote, currently has the best implementation of Copy/Paste feature of all smartphone platforms. However, it still does lack some feature like a history of the clips you’ve copied, web search for selected text, etc. If you add a Cydia app called Action Menu Plus Pack, which retails for $2.99, you can easily add those as well. Here’s Cult of Mac’s how-to guide for installing and using the app.
From the earliest iPhone and iPod Touch models, Apple opted to disable OBEX — aka Bluetooth file transfers on its devices for security reasons. Now, thanks to iBlueNova, a Cydia app well worth the $5.99 price tag, you can transfer files — music, pics, etc., — to and from your iDevices. Here’s Cult of Mac’s how-to guide to get you started.
Thanks to iOS4, Apple now offers its own solution for switching between applications. If you’re using an older operating system, try this method for getting some multi-tasking on your Apple device using the handy ‘ProSwitcher’ app, which gets the job done using minimal memory to keep your device speedy as you pause that epic game to check out the weather.
UPDATE: I was initially a little surprised by the vociferous reaction to this post about installing Installous, an unofficial App Store for pirated apps. The instructions are a quick Google search away and we’re hardly the first to publish an Installous how-to.
I guess we raised a few red flags — like putting “How To Pirate Apps” in the headline and including a half-hearted disclaimer. The intent was for it to be part of a comprehensive Jailbreaking Superguide that deals with all the things people want to do when they jailbreak their devices, including playing around with Installous.
The intent for the Superguide is to be straightforward and frank — a one-stop shop for everything people want to know about jailbreaking. We don’t condone piracy, but it’s a fact that a lot of people jailbreak their devices to experiment with things like Installous. I find it dishonest and hypocritical when publications skirt around issues like this; like publishing BitTorrent guides and pretending that no one’s going to download a pirated movie.
However, it’s obviously disingenuous to say we condemn piracy in a post that shows readers how to pirate software. Personally, I’ve always believed publishing information is one thing and acting on that information is another. I’ve always liked publications that informed me about things we’re not supposed to do. I can then make my own moral decision whether to act on that information or not.
But while pirating is something people indisputably do when jailbreaking, it was a misstep for us to actually include a comprehensive DIY. Whatever our intentions, it teeters on advocacy, and was thoughtlessly disrespectful to the many app developers out there who make their livings off of programs we admire and think people should pay for.
As our readers have pointed out in comments and on Twitter, we crossed a line here. CultofMac.com isn’t some modern-day Anarchist Cookbook. We support developers and enjoy their many wonderful creations. Saying there are ways out there to install cracked apps is one thing, showing people how to do it is another.
So my apologies to readers for misjudging this, and to developers for being insensitive and opportunistic.
Also, please don’t attack the author, Sayam. This was my idea, not his. He’s a freelance writer and I commissioned him to write it, so please don’t be mean to him.
— Leander.
PS: The BitTorrent link to “pirate” copies of my Cult of Mac book posted in the comments is actually a publisher-sanctioned seed. No Starch Press turned it into an e-book and seeded it. So please help yourself, it’s free and legal.
Although the Cydia app offers an extensive soup-to-nuts package, every once in awhile you might find it useful to add a source to the ones already available. Here’s Cult of Mac’s guide on how to add a source to Cydia.
Unfortunately, because of the legal issues involved, the Apple spokeswoman would only provide me with the following statement on the record:
“Apple’s goal has always been to insure that our customers have a great experience with their iPhone and we know that jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience. As we’ve said before, the vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones as this can violate the warranty and can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably.”
Got a spare $170,000 lying around? If so, UK jeweler Stuart Hughes will sell you an iPad covered in solid gold that weighs a hefty 5.5lbs.
The 64GB 3G iPad is covered in 2.5 kilograms of solid 24ct gold. “A magnificent combination of top of the industry technology and unrivalled craftsmanship was involved in creating this masterpiece,” the jeweler says. The iPad will be limited to 25 units.
Stuart Hughes sells a bunch of other blinged-up gizmos, including a $33,000 iPhone 4 covered in 150 grams of 24ct gold. It’s a 32GB model without a SIM lock. The gold doubles its weight to about 290 grams. It includes a hand-finished wallet made from Ostrich foot.
No word on whether the gold improves reception, but investing in gold has never been hotter.
Back in the day the entertainment industry tried to stop consumers from videotaping TV shows to watch at a later time. But the courts and Congress said taping TV shows is a non-infringing use of copyrighted works: it is “fair use.”
Now, the Copyright Office has determined that Apple locking the iPhone to prevent it running unapproved apps is an unfair restriction on consumers’ fair use rights.
Consumers should be allowed to jailbreak their iPhones and install whatever applications they like: not just those approved by Apple. Unlocking your iPhone to install non-approved apps is a legal exemption to the DMCA, the Copyright Office has just ruled.
To reach this conclusion, the Copyright Office applied the four famous “fair use factors” to the case:
Now that the US Copyright Office has ruled that jailbreaking your phone is not a violation of the DMCA, you can go ahead an tinker without crossing over to the wrong side of the law.
Tell us whether you will jailbreak your iPhone now or not and why in the comments.
