Cult of Mac

Fantastic. 25 years after it was first written for the Mac, Apple has chosen donate the source code of MacPaint and QuickDraw to the Computer History Museum, making one of the earliest and most efficient pieces of art software ever available to public scrutiny for the first time ever.

Originally released back in 1984, MacPaint was a revolutionary piece of software that first introduced common image editing conventions like the lasso tool and the paint bucket. From a programming perspective, though, MacPaint is even more impressive: it was so efficiently programmed and its memory constraints were so tight that MacPaint actually revealed bugs in the underlying system that could only be exposed by running so close to the edge of available memory.

According to a whimsical Steve Jobs, up to twenty-four man years went into the writing of MacPaint. If you’re interested in taking a glimpse at coding perfection spread across 5,804 lines of Pascal and 2,738 of assembly, go take a look.

After Apple changed its privacy policy to collect geo-data from customers, lawmakers called on Apple to explain exactly how and when it collects that information.

The answer? If you have an iPhone running OS 3.2 or iOS 4, Apple collects location information from you every 12 hours.

The GPS on Apple mobile devices collect data, encrypts it, then sends it back to Apple every 12 hours using wi-fi. The GPS data comes with a random ID number the phone generates once every 24 hours. Individual users cannot be identified. Apple also reminds lawmakers in the letter that customers can always turn off all location-based services. You can read the full 13-page response, here (pdf.)

What It Is: The Bubble Slider case is a distinctive hard shell from Hard Candy Cases that’s saved my iPhone 4 on several occasions now.

Why It’s Cool: When I show people my iPhone 4, they often spend as much time admiring the Bubble Slider case as the device itself.

iTunes 9.2.1 is now available for download and finally fixes the numerous bugs many of us have been experiencing:

• Disables older versions of some incompatible third-party plug-ins
• Addresses minor issues with dragging and dropping items
• Addresses a performance issue when first syncing to some devices with iTunes 9.2
• Addresses an issue upgrading to iOS 4 on an iPhone or iPod touch with encrypted back-ups
• Addresses other issues that improve stability and performance

You can get this update via Software Update on your Mac, or download it directly from the Apple website.

Apple has released an update to its iBooks application for the iOS and the latest version brings with it a few nice new features.

As well as the ability to now choose between 6 different fonts for your books, you can also double-tap images to see them in greater detail; and experience books that include audio and video.

In addition to new features, we also get welcome bug fixes, or, “stability and performance improvements.” I’ve lost count of the number of errors I get when opening a book in iBooks, so I’m hoping these issues are now fixed. So far, so good.

The full list of features from the app’s description is as follows:

• Double-tap an image within a book to view it in greater detail.
• Experience books that include audio and video.
• Enjoy substantial performance improvements when reading PDFs.
• Look-up definitions to English words inside books without a specified language.
• Addresses an issue that may have caused some book downloads to not complete.
• Includes many stability and performance improvements.

You can download the update through iTunes or the App Store on your device, or grab iBooks from the App Store for free if you don’t already have it.

Image via AppAdvice

The new issue of Wired, featuring a futuristic Will Ferrell on the cover, includes an absolutely devastating take on the long, troubled partnership of Apple and AT&T by Fred Vogelstein. Things really couldn’t be worse. Just picture Steve Jobs at his most furious, then make him work on a near-daily basis with a company that can’t pull off basic stuff (even if some of it might be Apple’s fault). Then imagine that they ask him to wear a suit to meetings.

Apple and AT&T have bickered about how the iPhone was to be displayed in AT&T’s stores: Apple insisted the phone be presented on its own display stand, away from other models. They have even fought about wardrobe: When an AT&T representative suggested to one of Jobs’ deputies that the Apple CEO wear a suit to meet with AT&T’s board of directors, he was told, “We’re Apple. We don’t wear suits. We don’t even own suits.”

Ouch! Other revelations include the fact that Apple has long thought about leaping to Verizon (duh), and that Scott Forstall even led a team down to Qualcomm to discuss creating a CDMA iPhone as early as 2007 because AT&T demanded that Apple make YouTube WiFi-only, use low-resolution video, or limit clips to one minute. Basically, Apple has spent every day of the last three years wishing that it had a company as ambitious as itself running its network, while also being keenly aware of what a bad business proposition that would be.

In all honesty, the story is one of the best I’ve read for really considering the business complexities of the emerging connected lifestyle. The carriers all want people to use the most popular devices, but the devicemakers want more bandwidth at a lower price than any carrier is ready for. The death of the unlimited data plan might well clear the hurdles that have made AT&T act so awful when it comes to allowing new iPhone features beyond the initial set, but it’s early days yet.

This much is clear: the dreadful 3G infrastructure in the U.S. is in no way equipped to handle the rise of the App Phone, and it will be a painful several years before 4G makes up for it. But it’s always this way: computers that were powerful enough for the web were out a long time before broadband was available in the home, and now cable modem speeds are plenty fast for most users, and chokepoints have evaporated. Let’s just hope we’re only a few years away from a similar breakthrough in mobile.

Via Fast Company

We all gave up the ability to jailbreak and tether our iPhones when we updated them to iOS 4 or purchased an iPhone 4. Hackers have been teasing us that an iOS 4 jailbreak is imminent, but now you don’t have to wait for them or the jailbreak to have tethering again. You can have tethering on your iPhone now — using an open source project hosted on GitHub called iProxy.

Tired of paying for ringtones for your iPhone? In this tutorial I will walk you through on how to create a ringtone from within iTunes using any song. This tutorial works on any song you may have purchased or ripped into iTunes. Read the full tutorial after the break.

PR expert Matt Seeger said Apple did issue a recall last Friday by providing iPhone 4 customers with free Bumper cases.

“From my perspective, this was a classic case of a recall,” said Seeger, who is chair of the Department of Communication at Wayne State University in Detroit. “They said, ‘Bring the product in, we’ll retrofit it.’ It’s not what most people think of as a recall, which is a safety issue. But this was a recall.”

The FCC has approved Apple’s Magic Trackpad, which means the device could be announced as early as this week.

A device known by the model number A1339 and described as a “Bluetooth Device” has just shown up in the FCC’s database. Given how quickly Apple has in the past announced devices that have just approved by the FCC, the Magic Trackpad could be officially launched within days.

The device would act as a big touch-sensitive trackpad for desktop computers, such as an iMac. It looks as though the device supports handwriting recognition, as well as the swipes and gestures found on the Magic Mouse and MacBook Pro trackpads.

Here are some more leaked photos of a prototype:

Apple has removed the Chatroulette-like app, iChatr, from the App Store because of flashers.

Apple pulled the app this weekend after eight days because users were inappropriately exposing themselves to strangers while using the app.

Why buy movies for your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch when you’ve already got the DVD sitting in your closet? If you’ve been looking for a great DVD ripper for Mac, then look no further. The WinX HD Video Converter provides the perfect solution to convert Blu-ray videos and videos from HDTV and HD camcorders, like JVC, Panasonic, Sony and Canon to other formats. This HD converter for Mac supports converting Multi-track HD video M2TS, MKV, AVCHD, HDTV BDAV and MPEG-TS video movies. It can also convert video files to the video formats that playable on both portable and console players, such as iPad, iPod, iPhone, (iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4), Apple TV, PS3, PSP, Xbox, Zune, PDA, Blackberry, Nokia, Android, Zen, etc. So, who wants a copy?

Here’s what you gotta do:

1. Become a fan on our Facebook page.
2. Post your favorite movie quote on our wall.
3. Suggest our page to 10 of your Facebook friends that are Mac enthusiasts.

We’ll randomly pick a winner after 11:59pm tonight, and we’ll post the winner on Facebook tomorrow.

Legal: This giveaway is void where prohibited, and you must be 18 years old to enter the giveaway. There is no purchase necessary to enter the giveaway. This giveaway is being sponsored by WinXDVD.com.

This basic black iPad case and carrier has a few tricks in its sleeve: Berlin company Bagjack designed it so that it props up your device as you wear it for hands-free access.

Hang the CircDisCover iPad Case over one shoulder and voila’: next time you’re at a trade fair or conference or standing in line at the airport, you can access your iPad — either horizontally or vertically — without having to prop it up somewhere or hunt and peck with one hand.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-ECt7X4bew

I know, I know: who wants to wear a man purse? You should: this simple, clean design can be worn right under the arm (think public transport, on your bike), on your wrist or  horizontally with a wide carrying strap like a regular computer case.

The only trouble with these kind of wear-it-20-different-ways type garments, at least for me, is that I probably learn to do two of them and never bother with the rest.  Still, once you figure out how to wear it in hands-free mode, you’re golden.

You can pre-order it in black, white or grey for €129 euros, here.

Via High Snobiety

It was just a matter of time before someone devise a way to let you wake up to a custom alarm from your iPad. The iPad dock, charger and radio called the iA100 — all the variations of iSleep or i40winks were apparently already taken — is being billed as an “amazing app-enhanced, Bluetooth-enabled FM radio alarm clock.”

Though its top-heavy looks don’t immediately appeal (and could be dangerous, depending how clumsy you are in the morning), it has enough features to keep you up at night tweaking your sleep habits: it comes with a Free iHome+Sleep app download that lets you set up  custom alarms, sleep stats, social media alerts, weather and overnight news. The iHome + Sleep app can also customize your wake up and nap settings, so so you don’t have to fiddle with it to get a day’s siesta.

iHome wants to put this new model beside your bed, though they are playing coy and haven’t released pricing or availability yet. It also works with your iPod or iPhone, too.

What do you think — is a wake-up call worth using your iPad for or will you stick to an old school alarm or using your iPod or iPhone?

Via Chip Chick

We start another week of deals with two bundles of accessories. The first, for the iPad owner, includes such gadgets at a crystal case for just $10. For the iPhone 3G or iPod touch owner, there is an accessory bundle with all the necessities, including car charger. We wrap up or featured deals with a new crop of App Store Freebies, including “GooFight,” a farm-themed Google search engine optimization tool for the iPhone or iPod touch.

Along the way, we check out other software, including Navy Patrol: Advanced Premium for the iPhone and ImageWell 3 for the Mac. As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Don’t miss this: it’s a scream.

That hilarious animated Taiwanese news segment on Steve Jobs and the iPhone 4 we posted earlier now has English subtitles, thanks to reader Michael Chang.

It shows Jobs defeating Bill Gates in a lightsaber battle and donning a Darth Vader mask; cops breaking down the door of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen’s apartment; and Jobs cutting of the fingers of customers who complain about iPhone reception issues. “Just get rid of those fingers,” Jobs tells the customer. “Then there’s no problems.”

Did Apple market its iPod and iPhone using expired patents? That’s the claim of an Austin Texas group asking a court to fine the Cupertino, Calif. company and several wireless carriers $500 per falsely-labeled product. The Americans for Fair Patent Use is suing under the federal False Marketing Statute.

The AFPU is also suing Sprint Nextel, Verizon Wireless and Samsung. The group alleges Apple marketed the iPhone, iPod touch, fifth- and sixth-generation iPod classic and third- and fourth-generation iPod nano using patents that had expired prior to the products reaching store shelves. The patents in question are U.S. Patent Nos. 4,577,216, 4,631,603, 4,819,098, and 4,907,093.

Some of what Apple will say tomorrow after the stock market’s close is already known. For instance, the handset maker has said it sold 1.7 million iPhone 4s in three days, 3 million iPads in just 80 days, and between 2.9 million to 3.5 million Macs. Both Apple and Microsoft are expected to report more than $15 billion in quarterly revenue, but will it be enough to put the consumer electronics company over the top? Probably not.

Microsoft still has one advantage. According to Zaky, Microsoft has an operating margin of more than 50 percent, an enviable asset and one likely to keep the venerable software giant out of the grasp of Steve Jobs and the Apple money-making machine.

[9to5Mac]

To solve the iPhone 4 Antennuation problem (or, at the very least, the PR disaster of that problem), Apple’s giving out millions of dollars in free cases to anyone who bought an iPhone 4… but maybe they should have saved their money and just shipped out some of these adorable, Band-Aid style Antennaids instead: $4.99 will patch the signal boo-boos of up to six iPhone 4s, although without a kiss from Papa Steve first to make the hurt better, who can really say how effective they will prove to be?

When you think of Tron in a gaming context, you inevitably think lightcycles, which makes the official Tron game from Disney Interactive something of a puzzler: it’s a dual-stick tank shooter game. The single player is a diverting (if not particularly engaging affair, in which you blast programs into pixels across 15 different levels, but it’s the multiplayer that shines: you join a particular team, and each faction’s score is gauged weekly according to their deathmatch dominance.

The best news of all? Tron is free to download. Go grab it on the App Store, program.

The iPad is coming! The iPad is coming! That could be the cry heard in nine more countries as Apple announced Monday it was expanding international orders this Friday. Both the 3G and the 3G+WiFi version will begin selling in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore July 23.

The iPad “will roll out to many more countries later this year and Apple will announce availability and local pricing for these additional countries at a later date,” the Cupertino, Calif. company announced.

If you’re a heavy-duty Flickr user, you might want to hit “Update All” under the iPhone App Store: the official Flickr app has just received a swell new update, including support for HD video uploads from the iPhone 4.

If that’s not enough, the latest version of Flickr for iPhone brings multitasking support with background photo uploads, Twitter support, fast app switching and enhanced full-screen browsing behavior, as well as the ability to clear recent searches.

Don’t have Flickr for iPhone yet? It’s free, and you can grab it here.

9to5Mac has gotten their hands on some leaked details, showing off more about how Apple’s FaceTime videochat protocol will work with the WiFi-only iPod Touch.

As we reported before, FaceTime on the iPod Touch is all linked through an email address linked to your Apple ID… although interestingly, it appears you can set up multiple e-mail addresses where FaceTime contacts can contact you. Then there’s the FaceTime icon, seen above.

Interesting, and I can’t wait to try it out. My only question: does this mean the new iPod Touch is getting a mic as well, or will FaceTime users be expected to wear mic-enabled earbuds on their calls? That seems like a lackluster implementation of a new software feature Apple intends to use as the headliner of this generation of iOS devices. My money is on the iPod Touch getting a mic.

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So apparently, that iPhone DSLR mount we posted on Friday wouldn’t actually work in real life, but that’s not to say that hooking a SLR lens up to your iPhone 4 is total madness: the guys over at vid-atlantic did just that, hooking their iPhone 4 up with a Canon EF 50mm f1.8 lens, and the resulting video is striking: for all of the mock-ups and rigs going around right now of SLRs Frankensteined together with iPhone 4s, I didn’t actually know the quality of the resulting footage would look so impressive. Impractically impressive, sure, but impressive none the less!

You might have heard: Apple’s giving a free case away to every iPhone 4 owner who even softly complains about their new smartphone’s reception. Needless to say, then, that their heretofore $30 bumper case is now going to be in short supply as Apple tries to handle freebie demand… so it’s ultimately no surprise that their rainbow assortment of bumper cases are now unavailable for purchase from Apple’s online store. Hope no one had their heart set on buying one!

[via 9to5Mac]