Cult of Mac

Mothers possess skills varied and wide, and recent research shows Moms are particularly adept at using their iPhones.  The Huffington Post has developed a list of Top iPhone Apps for Moms, By Moms:

Never underestimate a mom with an iPhone.  Research from Greystripe [PDF] show that moms love iPhone apps, and are downloading apps in various categories from games to productivity.

While most mobile developers are men, a growing number of opportunistic women are venturing into app development to create apps catered to other women. And many of these women are part of a group called Moms with Apps, a collaborative group of family-friendly developers who share best practices on making and marketing mobile apps.

HuffPo’s list includes some nicely done iPhone and iPod touch apps that deal with emergency infant medical care, learning sign language, communicating with autistic children, and – helpful for Moms, Dads and chauffeurs of all kinds – roadtrip bingo.

Oh, the days when mobile phone veteran Motorola was hawking the slim Razr while competitors had bricks. Darn these young whipper-snappers like Apple and their iPhone doo-hickeys. Motorola, maker of the Verizon Droid, now finds itself being outsold by Apple. The Cupertino, Calif. company sold 8.4 million iPhones compared to 8.3 million handsets for the Schaumburg, Il.-based Motorola during the second quarter.

Is your voice mail password now the property of some Chinese hacker? Millions of Android users who downloaded an innocuous wallpaper app from Google’s Android Market may be nodding their heads ‘yes.’ Turns out, that wallpaper app was sending voice mail passwords and many other bits of personal data to someone in Shenzhen, China, according to one report.

The exploit was downloaded “anywhere from 1.1 million to 4.6 million times,” reports Dean Takahashi of VentureBeat. The application grabs your browsing history, text messages, phone’s SIM card number and subscriber ID and sends it all to the www.imnet.us website, according to the report.

Our favorite Mac vivisectors over at iFixit have torn down the Magic Trackpad, cutting it apart for access to its hidden hardware secrets.

Unfortunately, there really weren’t many, short of the news that the Magic Trackpad uses the same touchscreen controller trip as the iPhone and the same Bluetooth chip found in the Magic Mouse. It’s something of a Frankenstein device, but that’s a good thing: it’s just more proof about how good Apple has become in making its products from the same parts.

It was just yesterday that we saw an intriguing case for jailbroken iPod Touches that promised to give it the ability to make phone calls and send text messages.

Who knew Sprint was planning something similar? It’s a case called the ZTE Peel 3200, and as near as anyone can figure out, it’s a mobile hotspot that would wrap around an iPod Touch and give it constant access over WiFi to Sprint’s 3G network.

Pretty swank. Combine this with Skype and iOS 4.0’s background VoIP abilities and there’s not a lot missing. If the price is right, this case might end up proving preferable to a two-year AT&T contract.

From the consumer end, the hold-up on the white iPhone 4 has been pretty inexplicable. Exactly how hard can it be for Apple to get the white iPhone 4 right? They release multi-colored gadgets all the time, with no problem whatsoever. What’s the difference here?

Over at the Street, there’s an unconfirmed explanation being floated that actually makes a good deal of sense.

Because both the front and back of the iPhone 4 is made of glass, Apple has to be very careful about light leaking out of the seams and through the backplate of the handset, since they can’t just slap another layer of coating to fill the gaps. On the black iPhone 4, this isn’t as big of a problem, but the white iPhone 4’s back is naturally more transparent than the black’s. Hence the delay.

I’m no engineer, but that seems to grok. It certainly makes more sense to me than the other theory: that Apple had delayed the white iPhone 4 to secretly fix the antenna design.

Listen up, iPhone 4 owners: get thee to a strong AT&T cell. That’s the advice of Wall Street Journal tech columnist Walt Mossberg on Apple’s latest handset.

Mossberg said the iPhone 4 works best in areas with “average or strong AT&T coverage”, however, he said the iPhone 3GS is a better choice for users living, working or traveling in spots with weak coverage by Apple’s exclusive U.S. carrier partner. AT&T “operates a network that has trouble connecting and maintaining calls in many cities,” he told readers.

Hope for iPhone 3G users running iOS4: after weeks of suffering under the radar, the Wall Street Journal blog Digits reports today that Apple is aware of the performance issues plaguing 3G users running the latest update:

Apple is investigating reports that the latest iPhone operating system causes problems for users of the iPhone 3G, after a series of complaints on Apple support forums and technology blogs. Apple is aware of the reports and is looking into the matter, a spokeswoman told Digits.

iOS4 performance on an iPhone 3G can be a painful experience – sluggish performance, poor battery life, many more reboots, along with vastly increased levels of user angst.  We’ve covered this issue before, as have many other websites, and Apple’s own support forums are buzzing on the topic.

If you’re getting around now to jailbreaking your iPhone and love social media, think about adding qTweeter to your app arsenal.

There are plenty of awesome Twitter and Facebook iPhone apps, but Cult of Mac finds qTweeter a must-have because you can broadcast social media updates just by pulling the app down from the status bar, and, say, vent about your co-worker while reading a particularly annoying email (not that we would, of course), rave about a new band you’re listening to the track or ask the peanut gallery what you should have for dinner by sending them a link to a take-out menu from a web page.

This $4.99 app has been one of our favorites since it launched in 2009.  Here’s Cult of Mac’s quick guide to getting you started with it.

We’ve received multiple reports from readers that their free iPhone 4 Bumper cases are already in the mail, despite initial delivery dates in August or September.

I just got an email from Apple saying my own free Bumper case is winging its way to San Francisco. It is due to be delivered August 3, according to the tracking data. Apple initially said the free case would be delivered in September.

Good work Apple: Underpromise and overdeliver.

Apple has released Safari 5.0.1, the latest version of its browser that adds support for the Safari Extensions Gallery and it includes a patch for the recently discovered Address Book bug.

According to Software Update on my Mac the update includes these new features:

If you haven’t upgraded to iOS4, VolumeButtonExtender available on Cydia is worth checking out.  While the iPhone offers a couple of ways to control your music, you need use the screen to do it, not a great solution if you’re jogging, using it in the car or otherwise need to turn adjust the volume or skip tracks quickly with just one hand and minimal attention.

VolumeButtonExtender gives you quick access to the music controls, even in standby mode, using just the volume buttons. Available on Cydia, the handy utility also helps extend your battery life. Here’s Cult of Mac’s guide to help get you started.

If you type a lot on your iPhone and haven’t upgraded to iOS4,  BTstack available on Cydia is worth checking out.

The iPhone’s on-screen keyboard and auto-correction are great, but if you write long missives or are used to hammering out complex messages on a keyboard, you’ve probably wanted to use an external keyboard to get your point across at one time or another.

This is where BTstack keyboard comes in: it’s a simple paid application that lets you hook up most external Bluetooth HID keyboards to your iPhone or iPod Touch. Keep in mind that it doesn’t support more sophisticated commands for your mobile opus (selection, copy/paste, etc.) but it works like a charm for straight typing. Here’s Cult of Mac’s quick guide to get you started.

We start the day with two deals on iPods. First up is the 2GB fourth-generation iPod shuffle for $35. Next is the 8Gb current iPod nano for $99 from the Apple Store. We wrap up our top deals with the latest batch of App Store freebies, including “QuickRemind” for the iPhone and iPod touch. Along the way, we’ll check out other deals, including the PowerBug, a new stand for the iPad and new software bargains for the Mac.

As always, details on these and many other items are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.

With Office for Mac 2011 launching later this year, Microsoft is giving a sneak peek of the productivity suite.

Above is the first in a series of highlight videos, showing off several new features, including Outlook for Mac (with Conversation View and Spotlight integration), a new Template Gallery and the Ribbon UI nav scheme.

Mactopia: Office for Mac 2011 Behind-the-Scenes: Conversations, Templates and more!

Amid all the new product news on Tuesday Apple quietly shipped a driver update titled: Magic Trackpad and Multi-Touch Update 1.0. I discovered the 78.6MB update last night via Software Update on my Macbook Pro and promptly installed it.

I highly recommend this update for most recent Macbook and Macbook Pro notebooks since it adds support of the new $69 Multi-Touch Trackpad as well as adding gestures for inertial scrolling and three-finger dragging. The three-fingered gesture is my favorite since it allows me to quickly drag windows around.

A complete list of notebooks that support the new gestures can be found in this Apple support document https://support.apple.com/kb/ht4254.

Also Tuesday, Apple released updates for Windows that add support for the Magic Trackpad hardware. A 6.62MB update is available for 32-bit versions of Windows and another for the 64-bit versions of Windows is 3.98MB. It works with Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 as well as Macs running the operating system via Boot Camp.

For some time, the iPhone has been saddled with the award for data hog. So much so, data usage has become an excuse by AT&T to explain poor network performance and a recent cap on data usage by iPhone owners. But it turns out the iPhone is second to Verizon’s Droid, a new study released Wednesday indicates.

According to a report by Validas, Verizon’s non-Blackberry smartphones consumed 421MB per month compared to 338MB for AT&T’s iPhone. The study analyzed consumer bills from 2009 and 2010. The 2009-2010 Wireless Data Study “provides year-over-year trends and detailed distribution charts segmented by device and by carrier, providing unique insight into the explosive growth of wireless data, which carriers are benefitting most from it, and which user and device groups are most driving it,” notes the study.

Panasonic has just announced their newest camcorder, the HM-TA1, a high-definition pocket cam fully compatible with the iFrame standard.

Available in black, red, gray and purple, Panasonic camcorder is compact, weighing less than a quarter of a pound. The HM-TA1’s software is streamlined for social networking, making it easy to upload videos to YouTube or Facebook, while also boasting electric image stabilization and a 4x digital zoom.

Other features of the HM-TA1 include support for SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, a 2-inch LCD and an integrated USB port. If you want one, the HM-TA1 will be available in August for $169.95.

Despite all the headaches over a rash of worker suicides, Foxconn should be resting easier today. Instead of headlines about overworked iPod assemblers jumping to their death, the electronics factory is being hailed as manufacturing half of the world’s electronics. The company, officially known as Hon Hai Precision Industries, seems to have caught a ride on a rocket – Apple.

“Foxconn’s customers are some of the hottest companies in the electronics business today, most notably Apple,” iSuppli associate Thomas Dinges said Wednesday. Foxconn, with a little help from the Cupertino, Calif. iPhone maker, posted nearly triple the revenue of it’s closest rival for first place. Foxconn, based in Taiwan, earned $17.1 billion in the second quarter, massively overshadowing No. 2 Flextronics International, which reported $5.9 billion.

I don’t really know if this neat little iPod Touch case will work, or even if it’s real, but superficially, it’s very promising: the Apple Peel 520M promises to turn your SIM-less Touch into an actual smartphone.

How does it work? Software-wise, presumably through jailbreaking. The hardware’s simple enough, though: just slot your Touch into a case containing an Infineon baseband chip and an 800mAh battery capable of providing 4.5 hours of call time or 120 hours of standby.

So basically, the Peel 520 is a mobile phone that uses a jailbroken iPod Touch as an external cell phone display. Ingenious and cute, but has the whiff of vaporware about it. If the Peel ends up being real, though, it’ll be released in China next week for a pretty reasonable price of around $50. We’ll keep our eyes on the import shops.

To further promote HTML5 as the future of web graphics, Apple has swung open the door for extensions to the public. While introduced in June to developers, Safari 5.0.1 now can be downloaded. The Cupertino, Calif. company also opened its Safari Extensions Gallery, joining the ranks of Firefox and other browsers extending the basic browser.

Bing, Twitter and the New York Times are among the first extensions available for Safari. “We’re thrilled to see so many leading developers creating great extensions and think our users are going to love being able to customize Safari,” said Brian Croll, Apple’s vice president of OS X Product Marketing.

Safari Extensions are built with HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript web standards. They are available for download at the extensions.apple.com site.

[9to5Mac]

According to the Daily Mail, Monday’s best-selling ebook was Blonde and Wet: The Complete Story on the UK iBookstore.

It wasn’t exactly an exposè about gossamer-haired scuba divers: it was an erotic novel, one of two by author Carl East that populated the top ten list of downloadable iBooks. Another collection called Six Sexy Stories by Ginger Starr came in at number five.

Yesterday, the list was very different, with all of yesterday’s erotica suddenly missing. In fact, according to the Daily Mail, all of the erotic books were was yanked simultaneously overnight, making it unlikely that they had naturally fallen off the list.

We’ve seen a good few next-gen iPod Touch leaks in the past few months, but the most recent rumors pretty strongly indicate that the next updatewill bring a FaceTime camera to the device.

What to make, then, of this latest prototype, supposedly found in a Californian “recycling place” and running iOS 3.1.3. It has no front-facing camera. That means no FaceTime… despite the fact Apple said they’d ship the software to millions of “iOS devices” this year.

At this point, it seems pretty clear that a lot of the iPod Touch prototypes with the second/third generation-style design and the back-mounted camera occulus are hold overs from last year, when Apple came within an inch of selling a camera-equipped iPod Touch, then pulled out at the last second due to module supply shortages. The next iPod Touch is going to have FaceTime, and it’s not going to ignore the iPhone 4’s glass-backed design.

Although Apple’s new 27-Inch LED Display is a wonderful addition to their product line-up, finally bringing the 27-inch iMac’s gorgeous 2560×1440 display to other Macs, it has come at a cost: Apple has discontinued the 24- and 30-inch display.

That’s disappointing: the 30-incher, in particular, is a gorgeous display, boasting a few more vertical pixels than the new 27-incher. The good news is that if you want Apple’s biggest display, you still have an opportunity to buy it: Apple will continue to sell the 24- and 30-inch Cinema Displays until their stock runs out.

We overlooked it in yesterday’s gluttony of new Apple products, but Cupertino’s quietest new product might, in many ways, be its most interesting: a battery charger.

The battery charger costs $29.99, and is remarkably green friendly: it has the lowest vampire rating in its class, intelligently shutting off power when batteries are full, and the six batteries that ship with the device itself are specced to last ten years.

It’s a strangely practical and unflashy device for Apple to release, even though Apple’s trademark design elements are infused into the device to the core. It makes sense that Apple would release something like this, though, as more and more of its peripherals go wireless.

What may be most interesting to me about the charger, though, is that it’s the first Apple product in recent memory that was launched to everyone’s complete surprise. No one seems to have had the slightest inkling that Apple was working on this.

I’ve got to admit: even though my job is to follow rumors and sift through patent filings, it’s just really nice to be surprised. That, in and of itself, is enough to lay down $30.