Cult of Mac

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhbGgLOxc-Y

For those one-foot-in-one-foot-out Cult readers who have an iPad and a Windows machine (or running Windows on a Mac), there’s now an iPad app called Maxi Vista that lets users turn their iPads into a second display — just like Air Display, which we reviewed last month, does for Macs.

We haven’t tried it yet (we’re somewhat allergic to Windows devices) but it looks like it works practically the same way as Air Display does, seamlessly creating additional screen real estate wirelessly over a wifi network. At $10, it’s even priced the same as Air Display.

Apple may be able to avoid a PR disaster of recalling the iPhone 4 in favor of a software fix, according to a Thursday report. The problem of dropped calls “exposed a longstanding weakness with the basic communications software inside Apple’s phones” rather than hardware trouble, the New York Times reported.

The newspaper also became the latest to claim Apple will not announce a recall of its latest iPhone. The Wall Street Journal has also reported Apple will not unveil a product recall of the iPhone 4. The Apple insider also told the Times the problems with reception were caused by what the newspaper described as a “complex interaction between specialized communications software and the antenna.”

Retrevo created this handy flowchart predicting consumer reactions following Apple’s press conference.

Of the four types of people — two are Apple fans in varying degrees, one is a hater and the fourth doesn’t really care about tech — any one who rates themselves a fan (Campin-Tosh) won’t change their opinion one iota, even if Steve Jobs outs himself as recreational bunny torturer who financially backs the Westboro Baptist Church.

The AppleSofties — who like Apple products enough but want to keep options open — will likely “file for divorce” no matter what the Cupertino Company says.

Which apparently means that, uh, if you are a bit more committed to Apple products, you drank the koolaid and will pretty much tolerate anything.

What do you think, are the predictions accurate?

Via Retrevo

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZUSMkyCxvI

If you’re looking for a quirky puzzler to whittle away your time over the weekend, I can’t recommend Helsing’s Fire enough: a hysterically written and unique puzzle game with an astonishing amount of playtime for just $0.99.

Plot-wise, the game follows Dr. Helsing and Rafton in their attempts to save London from a plague of vampires, ghouls, werewolves and other monsters. The gameplay is based upon dynamic lighting puzzles: you are given a limited number of torches and color-coded tonics to kill a set number of monsters per level. By shining your torch upon a monster and then using a tonic on it of the same color, you hit any monster illuminated by your torch with a killer shockwave. But it’s not quite so simple: hit a monster with the wrong tonic and they gain a shield, some monsters are protected by multiple shields, and your tonics also have an unfortunate splatter effect on helpless Victorian babes whom you must protect.

In truth, I could recommend the game for the congratulatory fist bump performed by Dr. Helsing and Rafton upon the successful completion of a level alone… but the gameplay is truly captivating as well. With over 90 levels and three separate endless modes, Helsing’s Fire is an absolute steal of a value. Give it a whirl.

The AirStash is a $100 USB card reader with a built-in Wi-Fi hotspot. It is used to stream media to other devices, which means broadcasting movies, music, and video to your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad and other gadgets with limited amounts of memory.

If only it worked.

Quirky is a fantastic crowd-sourced community design site that takes strong ideas and turns them into real products. Their latest creation, though, may be something of a misstep, at least when it comes to design: the Tilt Bumper Case for iPhone 4 is utterly ghastly. And you thought the stock Apple bumpers bumpers were ugly.

That said, look beyond aesthetics and you’ll find the Quirky Tilt has some impressive functionality. For one, it works as a kickstand: the bottom of the bumper is hinged, allowing you to prop your iPhone 4 up in both portrait and landscape mode. Also, the indented portion in the middle is designed to allow you to coil your earbuds around.

If you want one, get in on the action quick: the Tilt will only be produced in a batch of 990 cases, and each costs $28.

The Mac Pro is about due for another update, and while Steve Jobs has pretty explicitly ruled out Blu-Ray support in any foreseeable Mac refreshes, the sometimes-reliable French rumor site Hard Mac now claims that one of their “better sources” has indicated that we can expect USB 3.0 in the next update.

Although USB 3.0 in itself would be a nice addition to the Mac line-up, allowing data transfer rates of up to 4.8GBps, that’s not all that Cupertino has up its sleeves: they also intend to upgrade Firewire to Firewire 1600 or even 3200, according to HardMac… standards first seen back in 2008, and fully backwards compatible with FireWire 400 and 800.

Finally, HardMac claims that while Apple is interested in Intel’s Light Peak, a standard which they have been heavily rumored to have inspired. Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t feel that Light Peak is ready for prime-time yet, and are holding off on this generation before they implement it.

We’ve seen SLR lenses inexplicably Frankensteined onto iPhones before, but the “iPhone DSLR prototype” might just end up being final word on grafting an SLR lens onto an iPhone.

The iPhone DSLR is a 1.1lb mount made of anodized billet aluminum with dual handle grips and a tripod mount capable of filtering the light from a Canon SLR lens into the iPhone’s tiny sensor.

Personally, I’m not quite sure I get the point: no matter how good the lens, an iPhone’s picture is ultimately going to be hobbled by its tiny, noisy sensor. I suppose, as usual, this is a “because it’s there” proposition. But where would geek ingenuity be if not for the gleeful solving of imaginary and utterly surreal problems? God bless the Internet.

As spotted by Apple Insider, Apple’s latest patent application to be unearthed describes a dock wit a “rotationally symmetric” port that allows you to sync and charge your iPhone or iPad in any orientation that you may choose.

The most interesting part about this application is that it isn’t a plug-in device: in other words, an iPhone or iPad could sync and charge just by resting against the surface of the dock.

Much as I would kill to see the end of the USB iPod Dock Connector Cable for inductive syncing and charging technology, It’s strange to see Apple trying to patent this: the Palm Pre‘s Touchstone Charger has done this same thing for two years, and HP presumably now owns the patent on it. If I had to guess, the difference here is that Apple’s patent covers both syncing and charging, while the Palm Touchstone can only do the latter.

How will Apple’s device sync information wirelessly, though? My guess is not through induction, but rather through WiFi… a capability of future iDevices confirmed just last month by Steve Jobs himself.

Yesterday’s iOS 4.0.1 changed the way the iPhone’s signal is displayed: previously, iOS corralled the upper 40% of the signal into the fifth service bar in the fifth signal bar, meaning you had to have less than 60% signal to drop below four bars. This exacerbated the perceived effect of the iPhone 4 “Death Grip” by causing more bars to drop when held “the wrong way” when there were four bars or less of signal, but also made the reception degradation invisible to people living in areas of excellent service because the fifth bar had so much wiggle room for signal degradation.

This is no longer the case. Anandtech has just done a comprehensive examination of the way iOS 4.0.1 displays its signal bars, and as predicted, they found that Apple is now translating signal strength into bars more accurately and with a higher dynamic range. In other words, you’ll require more signal to show higher bars than it once did. Or, as Anandtech puts it, “regardless of how tall the bars are, there are still going to be fewer of them virtually everywhere.”

As an achievement iOS junkie, I’ve been disappointed that it’s taken Apple so long to bring their new Game Center app out of beta. Although there’s many services that offer gaming social networking features like friends lists, matchmaking and achievements, Apple’s entry into the market should consolidate everything into a default, Xbox Live style gaming hub.

Unfortunately, Apple hasn’t quite polished the service off yet, as revealed in a few pictures posted by Mobile Crunch, showing the updated look of the Game Center app. Gone is the dark blue look in favor of an appearance simulating a felted gaming table.

Aesthetically, I prefer the old look, even though the gaming table design is probably a stronger and more internally consistent one. Either way, we still have some time yet to wait before we get out hands on Game Center: it’s not due out until sometime this fall.

[via TUAW]

It may seem strange now that HP owns Palm and is preparing to make a major push of webOS across devices as wide-ranging as smartphones, tablets and even printers, but there was a time just a few months ago when Palm’s major value was perceived to be their library of patents and not their mobile, multi-touch operating system.

At the time, HTC was seen as a potential buyer, largely because securing Palm’s patents would allow them to beat back a massive legal attack currently being made against them by Apple in relation to patents pertaining to their Android smartphones. HTC eventually withdrew, but a new report suggests that another party might have been interested in picking up Palm: Apple itself.

According to the report, Apple — like HTC — was primarily interested in Palm’s intellectual properties, but what’s interesting is that they intended on keeping webOS alive, subsidizing Palm’s operations as a means of challenging RIM’s dominance in the keyboarded segment of the smartphone industry.

The Firefox Home application from Mozilla that allows you to synchronize your Firefox desktop session with your iPhone & iPod Touch has finally been approved and is now available for download in the App Store.

It’s free and uses your Firefox Sync account to transfer your history, bookmarks and open tabs between your computer and your device, giving you easy access to all of your Firefox favorites wherever you are.

For more information and instructions on setup, visit Mozilla’s support page here. Download the Firefox Home application for your device from the App Store here.

Apple will not recall the iPhone 4 at it’s 10AM press conference tomorrow, the Wall Street Journal reports:

Apple doesn’t plan to recall the phone, a person familiar with the matter said.

The story has media-management written all over it. The leak is from Apple’s PR department; the company is setting expectations for tomorrow’s event.

WSJ: Apple Knew of iPhone Antenna Risks

Apple just released iOS 4.0.1 — the day before its big iPhone 4 press conference. The update fixes the signal dislay algorithm, which Apple has said is behind iPhone 4 reception issues.

So it seems likely that the 4.0.1 update — and this alone — will be the subject of tomorrow’s press conference. Steve Jobs will use the event to explain (slowly and carefully) how this bug update fixes the problem.

No recall, no free bumpers, no admission of a hardware issue.

Who do you guys think? Will the 4.0.1 update be the subject of tomorrow’s press conference?

[polldaddy poll=3477023]

Audible.com, the provider of digital audiobooks and more, now have an application available for your iPhone & iPod Touch. It’s a free download and claims to deliver the “the most comprehensive audiobook experience ever.”

If you’re not already an Audible member, you can create a new account for free within the app, and as a bonus you will receive a free excerpt from The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World. At present, only Audible.com accounts will work, however the description states support for Audible.co.uk, .de and .fr accounts is coming soon.

Noteable features include the ability to transfer your books wirelessly between your computer and your device over Wi-Fi; multitasking for background audio playback and background downloading for compatible devices with iOS 4; and the opportunity to connect to Facebook and Twitter to let your friends know what you’re listening to.

Another nifty feature is the ability to check out your listening stats and collect “badges” for your listening habits.

For more information and to download the Audible app, check out the App Store here.

We start the day with a deal on a refurbished 8GB iPod touch for $139 – $37 off a new unit. Next is Chain Link Pro for the iPhone, a free touch-and-drag game. Our final top deal is a circle jelly skin for the iPhone 4 – just $1.50.

Along the way, we also take a look at other Apple-related deals, including other cases for your iPhone or iPod, as well as software for your Mac. As always, details on these and many other items are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.

Hot on the heels of the iOS 4.0.1 bug fix update, Apple has released a 3.2.1 update for the iPad.

The update fixes several issues, including Wi-Fi connectivity problems. It also adds Microsoft’s Bing to Safari’s search box.

– Improved Wi-Fi connectivity
– Fixed an issue that could prevent copy and paste of single-page PDF attachments in Mail
– Addressed an issue that could cause video playback to freeze
– Improved reliability of video-out when using iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter
– Added Bing as an option for Safari’s search field

The update is available through iTunes (plug in your iPad via USB) or can be downloaded here: iPad iOS 3.2.1.

It’s said Odin gave one of his eyes in exchange for a drink from the Well of Wisdom. Luckily for us, quenching our thirst for knowledge is somewhat less dramatic — all it takes is the punch of a button and bam, we’re at Wikipedia. Question is, which button to punch?

With its dizzying collection of features, Wikipanion is that button.

Apple has just issued the 4.0.1 iOS update, which includes a new formula for displaying reception bars.

The update includes a new signal strength algorithm, which is Apple’s answer to the iPhone 4 death grip issue. It doesn’t appear to improve reception strength, just the way it is displayed. According to Apple, the iOS used an old, outdated algorithm that incorrectly calculated signal strength, a problem that was exacerbated when user’s cover the external antenna.

The update fixes this problem, and is available for iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 3G. It can be downloaded through iTunes when the device is connected via USB. (Hit the “Check for Updates” button).

The update can also be downloaded here:

• iPhone 4
• iPhone 3GS
• iPhone 3G

Thanks Don!

A wireless expert with ties to Apple’s senior antenna engineer says the company is in a pickle. It cannot fix the iPhone 4 antenna issue without completely redesigning the hardware.

Earl McCune, a leading RF expert — and former colleague of Apple’s Sr. Director of iPhone/iPod engineering, Ruben Caballero (who is in the news today) — says the iPhone’s antenna will have to be moved.

“The only way to solve the problem is to not have your hand within a wavelength of the phone — about a foot and a half away,” said McCune, a RF/wireless consultant, author and entrepreneur. “It’s the law of physics.”

McCune is the former boss of Apple’s top antenna engineer, Ruben Caballero. Last year, Caballero tried to warn Steve Jobs that the iPhone 4’s external antenna may drop calls.

Screaming at the screen in a theater when things start to head downhill for the hero never really seems to work fro me. With the iPhone app of the interactive film The Weathered Underground, though, it might  (ok, screaming at an iPhone still won’t produce results, but the idea is that the story can be affected by input).

The movie, which showed up at the App Store yesterday after being available on DVD since earlier this year, lets the viewer choose the protagonist’s path after the young musician loses the love of his life and adventures through the city trying to win her back. Over a hundred path forks are hurled at the viewer — one every 90 seconds or so — which makes for a lot of movie packed into the $4 app.

An interesting idea that seems tailored for the iPhone or iPad; question is, how well does it entertain once the novelty has worn off, and will we see more of these?

Citing “reliable sources,” Greek iPhone site iPhone Hellas is reporting that iOS 4.0.1 might be released today.

The rumor doesn’t quite sound right: iPhone Hellas’ report suggests that yesterday’s iOS 4.1 beta seeded to developers might actually be iOS 4.0.1, which doesn’t make a lot of sense. “The final version of 4.1 will be released much later, probably in September, after several beta versions,” iPhone Hellas’ asserts.

That said, iPhone Hellas doesn’t have a completely ignominious background when it comes to iOS update predictions: back in 2008, they successfully predicted the released of iOS 2.2 over ten days ahead of time.

If the rumor is true, the best news of all might not be the much-talked about “software fix” for the iPhone 4 reception issues, but the fact that the jailbreaking community has been waiting on iOS 4.0.1 to release many of their new exploits, including an updated version of Spirit. Can’t wait!

[via Apple Insider]

Steve Wozniak loves his iPhone 4, but carries a back-up phone because of “death grip” antenna problems.

In a conversation with Dutch journalist Henk van Ess,  Woz says that he immediately noticed reception problems with the latest Apple smartphone.

Henk van Ess: How did you find out about the antenna problems?

Steve Wozniak: The first time I tried I was able to duplicate the problem. My wife was driving me to the airport and as soon as I got a short distance from my home, and no longer on wifi, I tried it by accessing a web page (using Safari on my iPhone 4) and observing the progress bar.

As the bar started to proceed I lightly (‘lightly’) touched a couple of fingers to the trouble area and the progress bar froze. When I lifted my fingers the progress bar continued it’s (sic) rapid progress. Putting my finger[s] back down halted the progress bar again. Lifting my fingers another time allowed the web page to finish loading.”

When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone 4 and demonstrated their FaceTime video chat technology, the Apple CEO bragged that they intended to ship FaceTime to “millions of iOS devices this year.”

Ever since then, smart money has been on FaceTime coming to at least the iPod Touch by the end of the year… but how will it work without a phone number?

Predictably, by email, if a report by BGR is anything to go by. According to them, your Apple ID will be registered with your device, and FaceTime requests will be delivered through push notification. Simple.