Kyle Buckner has come a long way from sketching fantasy Apple accoutrements for school projects, though even he admits he’s set “a fairly big price” on his latest work – an elegant iPhone docking station that’s part art piece and part kick-ass speaker system.
After making inquiries about getting his prototype design mass produced for more economical sale, Buckner has decided for now to let his one-of-a-kind item fetch what it will on eBay, with a starting bid just shy of $3K.
But making and selling pricey one-offs isn’t the talented designer’s idea of success. “I would love to design new products for companies,” he told us in an email exchange. “I love making prototypes for my ideas but with no way of easily mass producing them, I’ll never make it.”
So Bucker’s focused his attention on looking for work with manufacturers on product design, industrial design, furniture design….anything that would put his talents to more effective (and less risky) use.
We wrap up another week of deals with a trio of free, or next-to-free items. First up is a new batch of App Store freebies, including “Extreme ExposeIt! Awesome Ford Mustangs 2005-2010!” (Liberal use of exclamation marks also apparently thrown in for free.) Next is an acrylic case for your iPhone for under a half-buck. Finally is Pollux for the Mac, a music organization assistant for $7.
Along the way, we’ll also check out various gadgets that caught our eye. As always, details on these and many other bargains can be found on CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
It’s time for our weekly digest of tiny iPhone reviews, courtesy of iPhoneTiny.com, with some extra commentary exclusive to Cult of Mac.
This time, we review Azkend HD, Dizzypad HD, GTA: Chinatown Wars, LetsTans 8-in-1, Plants vs. Zombies HD, Scrabble for iPad, Scrabble Tile Rack, and The Catching.
To celebrate their 10th anniversary, Tivoli Audio has introduced an attractive new iPod Dock, the Connector, which allows you to hook your iPhone up to any radio… although the wood panel design of the Connector indicates that it is specifically meant to be paired with Tivoli’s own $199 Model 10 table radio.
A bit rich for our blood at $129, especially when you can hook an iPod fairly easily to any speaker system that accepts audio-in, but technology enthusiasts who have absorbed their sense of design from the aesthetics of Mike Brady’s living room might give the Connector a go.
British telecom company BT is readying a device similar to the iPad, but executives were reticent to compare it to Apple’s tablet device. BT CEO Ian Livingston told The Guardian newspaper the unnamed device is seen as a touchscreen telephone for the home.
“Someone else made a reference to it being a bit like the iPad but it is not,” Livingston said. “It is a different size and shape apart from anything else, but it is meant to stay in the home,” he added.
Foxconn Technology, the world’s largest electronics contractor and main supplier of most of Apple’s componentys, is once again in the news over the welfare of its employees in China after it racked up its sixth employee suicide this year.
The most recent suicide occurred in Foxconn’s factory city in Shenzen, where one of their 300,000 workers leaped to her death from her rented apartment. This follows a suicide last week by a 24-year old male factory worker, who also jumped to his death from the top of a dormitory building.
“We regret to see the recurrence of such incidents,” Foxconn said in a statement.
Apple has had bad publicity due to the way Foxconn treats its workers before.
In 2006, Apple launched an internal investigation over the matter of Foxconn “iPod Cities in which hundreds of thousands of employees worked in extreme squalor for pennies a day, and ultimately rejected the claims of abuse, noting that most workers’ biggest complaint was that they couldn’t work more overtime.
Foxconn’s latest slate of worker suicides calls into question the veracity of that report, as does a strike of 2000 workers earlier this month at fellow Apple contractor Wintek over 47 cases of hexane poisonings at the company’s Suzhou factories.
Not only did a survey by a local agency in the case of the Wintek poisonings find that managers at Wintek repeatedly deceived investigators trying to figure out the cause of the poisonings, but that none of their interviewees had ever even heard of Apple’s contractor code of conduct, which is meant to be enforced at the factories of all of manufacturing partners to guarantee the well-being of employees.
In America, Apple is one of the best and most employee-conscious companies in tech, but consistent reports of worker abuse and unhappiness in China really does raise the question: is Apple having the wool pulled over its eyes by companies like Foxconn and Wintek over the well-being of the workers who make our MacBooks and iPads?
Possibly not, but at the very least, it seems like its time for another internal Apple investigation… and a statement reaffirming Apple’s interest in the emotional and physical wellness of their contracted workers overseas.
The iPhone and iPod Touch have the industry’s best touchscreens, but some people still find the lack of true tactile feedback a barrier to adoption. Various companies have been working for a solution to that problem, but Toshiba’s new Senseg E-Sense technology seems ready for prime time now: slapped as a film on top of the display of an iPod Touch radically amplifies the tactility of objects on screen.
The film works by producing weak field changes in the area of the touchscreen touched by a user. This allows, for example, a swipe of the screen to offer the slight feel of resistance, or for an on-screen button to feel like it is actually protruding.
That’s genuinely exciting, and better yet, it’s cheap: Toshiba says that the Senseg E-Sense film, available now, costs as little as $0.11 per unit. Would you be interested in this sort of technology on your iDevice?
When Greg Hughes’ first revealed his amazing Wi-Fi Sync app a couple weeks ago, it didn’t take a genius to realize Apple was never going to let it on the App Store. Sure, there was no actual rule preventing it, but Apple has shown time and time again that they don’t want anyone messing around with iTunes sync. Plus, the very existence of the app makes Apple look bad: why the heck don’t we already have this functionality in iTunes? Apple was bound to kill it.
And so they have. Curious about Apple’s reasoning, Hughes’ even called them up, and was told that while the rep he spoke to agreed the app didn’t technically break any rule, it ” encroached upon the boundaries of what they can and cannot allow on their store.” Plus, you know, unnamed security concerns.
Still, not to fret if you’re a jailbreaker. Wi-Fi Sync was also bound to hit Cydia in case of an App Store rejection. And so it has, for a steep $9.99.
There’s nothing like a lawsuit to start the morning. The U.S. International Trade Commission announced Thursday night it would investigate Apple’s claims of patent infringement against Kodak. On April 15, the Cupertino, Calif. company alleged the imaging company violated two patents involving digital imaging and digital cameras.
The trade body said it would announce in 45 days when it expects to complete the investigation. Last month, Apple alleged Kodak violated Patent No. 6,031,964: a system and method for using a unified memory architecture to implement a digital camera device; and Patent RE38,911: modular digital image processing via an image processing chain with modifiable parameter controls.
In February, the trade court began investigating Kodak’s claim against Apple. Kodak claims the iPhone infringed upon a patent allowing other applications to “ask for help” in executing certain features.
Gradaddy’s song “Jed’s Other Poem” off of their album The Sopftware Slump has to be one of the most sweet and lonely ballads ever ostensibly written by a sentient robot, but Stewart Smith’s retroactively official “music” video for it — which prominently features an Apple IIe running a hand coded AppleSoft II program illustrating the lyrics — is probably what has made the song so famous.
Now, that music video has come, in a round about way, to the iPad. Smith, the original video’s programmer, happened to notice that the guys from Panic Software had an old Apple IIe sitting around, so he asked if they could run his animation on it. They didn’t have the old cassette drive to help Smith out, but they did have an iPad… and that worked just fine.
What it is:We Rule is an addictive world-building iPhone game that blends Sim City with Facebook’s Farmville. Set in medieval times, you must build a prosperous kingdom by micromanaging the peasants and expanding trade with other online players.
Why it’s good: The game blends the best empire-building aspects of Sim City with the social aspects of Farmville.
As a teenager, I was totally addicted to games like Sid Meier’s Civilization, and Sim City. Even though they had terrible graphics and long load times on my old Pentium 1 PC, the sense of being a ‘god’ and having power over all those little guys made it a deep and immersive experience. Now Ngmoco has brought this gaming experience to the iPhone.
Fruit Ninja incorporates the speed and simplicity of games like Doodle Jump with an innovative control method that makes the game addictive. I love this game. The graphics look like crap but the game proves the old adage — gameplay is king!
One of my must-have apps from the iPhone is not only breaking down barriers between consumer shopping habits and the online marketplace, but also passing milestones left and right.
The top-selling barcode-scanning iPhone app RedLaser has recently passed 2 Million downloads, catered to 950K active users last month, and successfully completed 50 Million scans according to a press release by Occipital CEO Jeff Powers.
The 50 millionth scan was of a Deuter Backpack scanned by a RedLaser user in Germany.
RedLaser now has the ability to locate books at a local library via WorldCat and look up packaged food allergen and nutrition information based on the item’s barcode.
I have a feeling barcode tattoos will be making a comeback in the very near future.
We start out with another deal on Core 2 Duo iMacs, including a 22-inch desktop machine with a 3.06GHz processor for $999. Also on tap: a 2.53GHz Core 2 Dup MacBook Pro with AppleCare for $1,699. Our final top deal is the Mac Box Set, including Mac OS X 10.6, iLife ’09 and iWork ’09 for $119.
As always, details on these and many other items (such as a Metallic Stripe hard case for the iPhone) are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.
Japanese blog KODAWARISAN sent us this picture of a 15″ Macbook Pro i7 with an interesting keyboard configuration. Instead of a command and option key on the bottom right of the keyboard there are two command keys.
This brings the total number of command keys to 3. The Google translation of the blog indicates that this notebook is a rare “Three-Sword Style Macbook Pro.” The name alone makes me want it now.
Steam has arrived for your Intel chipped Mac with an impressive list of titles for your playing pleasure. We have been anxiously awaiting this contemporary gaming standard’s arrival and I for one am pleased with the titles made immediately available.
Diablo-esque Torchlight is half price at $9.99. If you want to test out Steam’s prowess without having to spend your allowance you can download Valve’s puzzler Portal for FREE until May 24th. I know it sounds too good to be true but this cleverly worded promo page backs me up.
Head over to Joystiq.com to check out the list of titles and download link.
You can claim your invitation by logging into MobileMe through me.com. The invite should be on the bottom left corner. MobileMe Mail beta is currently only available in English.
The iPad is a perfect accessory for the living room table, and Comcast’s forthcoming remote control app, the Xfinity Remote, capitalizes on that by pairing your iPad to your cable box through Bluetooth, allowing you to easily search listings and access movies on demand through an extremely attractive interface.
Additionally, Xfinity comes with some powerful social and sharing features, which allows you to share television or movies that you’re watching with other friends, even if they’re not in front of the same television.
You can find more information about Xfinity Remote here. It looks great, but at the end of the day, perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the app is that it’s for Comcast instead of a better cable provider.
“Everything that Apple makes is meant to be dropped”
Adam Carolla tells it like it is in his latest rant about Apple products including a demonstration using his lucite handled Apple Tower. (Anyone know the model?) And apparently everything that Apple makes is shaped like soap.
Adam’s off TV, but he’s certainly doing well for himself. Check out Adam Carolla on his podcast available in iTunes.
That Verizon iPhone we mentioned the other day? According to Digitimes, it’s already in production, with Taiwanese manufacturer Pegatron having been contracted to produce up to 10 million CDMA iPhone units a year.
The Digitimes report seems to confirm the September Verizon launch that we’d previously heard rumor about, as the new CDMA iPhone isn’t expected to contribute to Pegatron’s revenues until August or September, according to sources.
That will likely give AT&T a three month exclusive on the next iPhone. No wonder, then, that they’re pushing up their upgrade eligibility dates to late June to entice existing subscribers to sign a new contract.
Exciting stuff: if the rumors of a CDMA iPhone pan out, American iPhone owners are finally going to be able to choose their network with the same freedom that they chose their smartphone, while Apple’s iPhone profits are going to go through the roof.
In a double-barreled response to Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ objections to Flash, Adobe’s cofounders released a public letter rebuking the Cupertino, Calif. company for undermining the Web while releasing a new advertising campaign marked by a tough love message.
Adobe cofounders Chuck Geschke and John Warnock, in an open letter, charged no “single company” should control the Web.
iPads don’t charge through USB ports that aren’t 10 watts, which is a bummer, especially if you’ve got a laptop that won’t juice your tablet. Enter Quickertek’s iPad Charge Monitor, perhaps the most useless accessory of all time. It’s a $29.95 dongle that tells you if your iPad isn’t getting enough juice to charge… a function already provided by your non-charging iPad. Who can put a price on confirmation of the obvious, though?
Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Wednesday filed a countersuit against Apple, asking the U.S. International Trade Commission to stop imports of key products sold by the Cupertino, Calif. company. The complaint, while centering on five patents, is the latest skirmish in a proxy war between Apple and Google.
“We are taking this action against Apple to protect our intellectual property, our industry partners, and most importantly our customers that use HTC phones,” Jason Mackenzie, HTC’s vice president of North America, said in a statement. In March, Apple sued HTC, claiming the handset maker infringed 20 iPhone patents. One analyst said the move was a “warning shot” for rivals building handsets aimed at the iPhone. The ITC soon announced it had begun investigating Apple’s claims.
CBS announced on Friday that they will be going the HTML5 optimized route to bring content to your iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Instead of creating a slick app like ABC’s, CBS thinks the best way to enter the post-flash mobile web is through CBS.com.
CBS Interactive SVP Anthony SooHoo confirmed to NewTeeVee.com that the 2010 Fall line-up will be available to non-flash users. I love how CBS’s move to HTML5 is based solely on the iPad:
Unlike ABC, which built an iPad app to deliver its full-length episodes and promotional clips on the device, CBS decided to focus on delivering video through its website, CBS.com. Since the Apple tablet doesn’t support Adobe Flash, CBS has created a video site for the iPad through HTML5 instead. It’s still early days, but Soohoo expects CBS to deploy more and more video that is iPad-ready, until it reaches content parity with what’s available on the website through a PC.
Interestingly enough, CBS is exploring some unique advertising opportunities to take advantage of the iPad’s multitouch capabilities.
