Are you tired of the giggles elicited by your upscale friends when you whip out your zebra-striped iPhone that burps each time a call is received? Maybe your handset needs a classier grill rather than yet another skin? If that’s the case, we might have your ticket to the technological upper-class: the Appstand.
Positioned as a great $20 Christmas gift for the iPhone 3G or 3GS owner, the Appstand from Thunk let’s you display your handset in the provided frame and start a series of calming slideshows (how about the sounds of wind or the lapping water from a koi pond?) It’s enough to make a subdued BlackBerry look downright scandalous.
We’ve reached Wednesday and celebrate by offering a top trio of hot bargains for Mac, iPod and iPhone fans. Let’s start with some Mac Pro Xeon workstations (2.66 – 2.93 GHz) beginning at $2,149. For iPod owners looking seeking a new look, there’s a deal on 3-packs of Kroo silicone skins for the nano. We wrap up our featured deals with a freebie from the iTunes music store: Serabee’s “Driving Me Stupid” album.
For details on these and other Mac bargains (such as the iLuv Hi-Fi alarm clock for iPod and iPhone owners), check out CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.
LocFinder is an augmented reality app that boasts it will always let you see which direction is home or find your car, even if you’re halfway across the world.
LocFinder costs $0.99 on iTunes and while isn’t the first augmented reality app to tackle parking lot amnesia — we recently wrote about Car Finder — it sounds like a compass on steroids.
It has a bevy of features that may end those ping-pong SMS messages to set up a meeting, make stopping to ask for directions a non-issue even when you’re lost in Paris — or let you know exactly how far away you are from Cupertino at all times.
Apple has begun shipping the 27-inch iMacs with Intel’s Core i7 processor, according a Cult of Mac reader. The i7 is Intel’s beefier update to its Core 2 Duo, running 2.66 – 2.8 GHz.
The i7 27-inch iMac shipped today and is expected to arrive in the U.S. by Nov. 17, according to the email. The unit had been ordered nearly one month ago on Oct. 23.
Earlier this week, word leaked out that Apple had begun shipping orders for the 27-inch iMacs with Intel’s 2.66 GHz i5 processors.
The i7-based 27-inch iMacs retail for around $2100.
Signs Macs were used for Microsoft's 'I'm a PC' ad campaign.
We all know that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Now software giant Microsoft admits it had Apple’s OSX in mind when creating the Windows 7 operating system.
“What we’ve tried to do with Windows 7 – whether it’s traditional format or in a touch format – is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics,” Microsoft partner group manager Simon Aldous said in a Wednesday interview.
Apple is now the most profitable player in the cell phone business, overtaking giant Nokia for the crown, reports said Wednesday. Apple earned $1.6 billion in profits during the last financial quarter, besting Nokia’s $1.1 billion for the same period, according to estimates.
Apple also overtook Samsung, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.
When I saw this snap in the Cult of Mac Flickr pool, I wanted to find out more. Who is the owner of the little family of Macs old and new, and how did they end up on this desk?
Since its introduction in September, Apple’s multimedia iTunes LP format has been the subject of constant speculation and teeth-gnashing. I took quite a lot of criticism a month ago, much of it well-deserved, for repeating a Gizmodo-reported rumor that Apple was restricting the format to a handful of titles from major labels only and charging high production fees that further marginalized Indies.
Apple denied all of this strenuously, and exactly four weeks ago pledged to release Open Specs for iTunes LP “soon,” as well as many more iTunes LP titles arriving in the store imminently, including Indies.
All I can say is, it ain’t true yet. Apple has not released the promised Open Specs, and only four additional iTunes LP titles have shown up in the iTunes Store, plus two that you can pre-order. They’re all from major labels, needless to say. For those keeping count, Apple has 19 iTunes LP titles, of which 17 are on sale today.
I’m not saying Apple won’t fulfill its promises here — I can’t wait until they do, in fact — but rather that they haven’t. The sooner Apple allows all of its record label partners to create iTunes LPs and offer a huge diversity of titles, the sooner it will have a chance of catching on. Until then, it’s just a cool tech demo for fans of Dave Matthews and Jack Johnson.
Do you think Apple will crack 20 titles in the iTunes by the end of the month?
The entertainment category is loaded with charming applications.
There’s a lot to like about the iPhone’s App Store. The more than 100,000 programs within its occasionally strict boundaries offer a bevy of experience riches unmatched in the mobile computing space. But it’s also frustrating. Great apps get postponed or blocked altogether, while great ones like Skype have key features removed.
All of this is nothing new. Mac bloggers talk about this all the time. But I think I’ve also pinpointed exactly why such minor complaints are so painful. It’s called the Entertainment Category of the App Store.
For those unfamiliar with its seedy contents, the Entertainment Category is sort of a catch-all for all kinds of applications that don’t have a good home elsewhere in the App Store. Here’s a chart I made to illustrate the problem:
Yes, despite the fact that the entertainment category does include some legit apps, some of which are great (Pocket God, Emoji, and Movies spring to mind), it is, for the most part, a giant blue Pac-Man of lame softcore porn devouring all in its path. And it’s impossible to find anything actually entertaining there. Which is a disaster. It’s a disincentive to develop something good (who can compete against Naughty Hotties?), and that means that it inevitably gets worse over time.
Psytar's Robert Pedraza -- the technical brains behind Psystar. Photo: Ted Soqui/Miami New Times
Psystar, the unofficial Mac cloner, may actually have a shot at beating Apple, the Miami New Times reports in an interesting backgrounder on the two brothers behind the company, Robert and Rudy Pedraza.
The six-page profile includes several interesting factoids, including the revelation that their father is a convicted coke dealer.
The brothers started their knockoff business after one of them survived a near fatal car crash. The company is shipping boatloads of computers and is likely making money (quickly eaten by legal costs). Several copycats have cropped up, including the Moscow-based RussianMac.
To recap, Psystar sells cheap Hackintoshes that run Apple’s OS X. A Psystar machine costs about a third of a comparable offering from Apple, but runs OS X in violation of Apple’s shrinkwrap EULA license.
Apple is hell-bent on shutting the company down, but some IP experts think Psystar has a shot. The case hinges on the legality of EULAs — shrinkwrap licenses — that say you don’t own the software you buy, you license it. The legality of EULAs has never been tested in the courts, which makes the Psystar case so important. If Psystar wins, it may not only throw a wrench into Apple’s business model, it may alter the entire software industry.
The paper quotes a couple of intellectual property lawyers who say the tiny Florida company may actually win.
“They’ve already put some really good arguments forward,” says Randy Friedberg, an intellectual property lawyer following the case in New York. “There’s essentially one really interesting question here, and it’s whether that licensing agreement holds up.”
The Touch project built a prototype RFID-equipped iPhone that used proximity to physical objects to trigger media playback: http://www.nearfield.org/2009/04/iphone-rfid-nfc
If rumors that Apple is adding an RFID reader to the iPhone are true, it’s huge!
An RFID reader would turn the iPhone into an e-wallet — allowing you to pay for everything, from a cup of coffee to a subway ride. It could also turn the iPhone into an ID card, a security access system and an electronic ticketing device.
It’s could also function as an easy and secure online shopping system that doesn’t require you to enter your credit card number.
Your iPhone could unlock your car, pick up e-coupons at the local mall, and pay for all your supermarket groceries just by laying it on top of the checkout.
Imagine if such a system was enabled on your iPhone. It would supplant your wallet — if enough retailers adopted the system, of course.
This is the last week to purchase The Mac Sale’s newest bundle, so if you were thinking about picking this one up, do it before Friday.
For the typical bundle price of $49.99, you can pick up some quality software that would normally cost a lot more. Classic Apps like MacJournal and HoudahGeo make the bundle great, but I reviewed a couple of other apps like Picturesque and Searchlight that are simple and ultra effective.
* CrossOver Games – Play a good number of Windows games on your Mac
* Opacity Express – Great drawing app for tinkering or serious design.
* Vinoteka – Organize your booze with this pretty app
* MacJournal – The ultimate blogging and journaling tool by Mariner Software.
* Stor – New MySQL editor that’s easy to use.
* Stone iMaginator – Powerful Core Graphics powered image editor.
* Picturesque – Great tool for web graphics. I use this regularly.
* Searchlight – Search and send files remotely using the iPhone or your desktop.
The great thing about bundles is that while saving you cash you get the apps that you want plus you can try out a few you didn’t know you needed. The Mac Sale Bundle (affiliate link) is a steal at $49.99, and while reading developer interviews you can listen to their crazy The Mac Sale Bundle song. The Mac Sale ends Friday.
We start off with a hardware trio: The Apple store offers a number of MacBook laptops, starting at $749 for a 2.1 GHz, 13-inch machine. Next up is an 8GB iPod touch for $139 and an 8GB iPhone 3G for $49. Along with hardware, we have several cases for your iPhone or iPod, both of the hard and soft variety. To wrap-up today’s deals, we list a couple chargers and bluetooth stereo connectors for good measure.
As always, for details on these bargains and others, check out the CoM “Daily Deals” page after the jump.
The Video Electronics Standard Association (VESA) Tuesday formally approved the Mini DisplayPort standard. The move to standardize the technology first licensed by Apple could prompt low-cost alternatives to displays made by Cupertino.
Any devices or cables using the Mini DisplayPort connector must meet DisplayPort 1.1a standards. VESA previously announced the Mini DisplayPort connector would be rolled-into the upcoming DisplayPort 1.2 standard that expects to increase bandwidth to 21.6GB per second. The upgrade would support multiple monitors, 3D displays, high resolutions and more colors.
Universal Studios Home Entertainment Tuesday introduced a bevy of iPhone and iPod touch tie-ins with a number of holiday Blu-ray titles. The DVDs come with the pocket BLU app, enabling iPhone and iPod users to enhance the Blu-ray experience. Another app, social BLU, lets Blu-ray users more ways to interact on Facebook and Twitter using Internet-enabled Blu-ray players.
The titles offering the iPhone and iPod apps include the Blu-ray versions of Bruno, Funny People, 9, American Pie Presents: The Book of Love, Public Enemies and Inglorious Basterds.
Hilton Hotels just launched an iPhone app that lets customers book and modify reservations at over 520 hotels in 76 countries.
Offered gratis on iTunes, the Hilton Worldwide app could come in handy for stranded travelers thanks to a feature that lets you find hotels near you, by address or airport, and gives you directions from your current location.
The hotels at hand also include all of those in the Hilton network — another 3,000 + including the Doubletree, Embassy Suites and Home2 suites chains.
The app will also let you choose bed and pillow type — plus if you don’t think you’ll have the strength to make a request once you get in, you can put your order for room service in via iPhone, too.
Sounds good, but it still has to compete with Priceline.com’s app (which boasts William Shatner as the icon) already iTunes’ fifth-most-downloaded free app after launching a week ago.
Remember the hoopla over Boston’s giant iPod billboard we reported on back in October? Questions arose whether a mayor’s aide had helped a business group obtain permission to erect the ad, despite the objections of the state’s outdoor advertising board and the mayor’s own historic reluctance for such things? The billboard was quietly removed, replaced by a public service mural.
Key to the decision was the Massachusetts Outdoor Advertising Board “deemed [the billboard] illegal because it advertised a product the storage business didn’t sell,” according to the Boston Herald. The ad was located on the side of a self-storage building that along with packing tape and locks, sold iTunes gift cards.
The billboard’s removal comes less than a half-year after the property owner and others paid $110,000 to obtain a one-year extension on a city permit.
“The netbook forums are now blowing up with problems of 10.6.2 instant rebooting their Atom based netbooks. My sources tell me that everytime a netbook user installs 10.6.2 an Apple employee gets their wings.”
What’s this mean? StelaRolo says that a hacked kernel will likely appear, but Apple is clerly nuking the Hackintosh market.
In addition, Apple will not likely release any future hardware based on Intel’s Atom platform. Instead, Apple will concentrate on ARM-based hardware, the same platform as the iPhone. That includes the upcoming tablet.
“Apple bought a processor-building company called PA Semi two years ago, in order to build chips for iPhones, said Steve Jobs. The chips that this new Apple division make will likely be the chips that power Apple’s tablet and even future laptops.”
While Apple is currently valued at $180 billion and Microsoft at $250 billion, Apple’s business is growing fast while MS’s is not.
“The biggest overriding reason why the company still has room to run is that its business is growing,” Erick Maronak, chief investment officer for the Victory Large Cap Growth Fund, told CNBC. “The day they introduce the tablet, that’s going to drive a lot of earnings.” (Maronak’s fund owns shares in both companies.)
Maronak said he would “not be surprised to see Apple’s market cap approach Microsoft’s in the next two years, though he also likes the software company’s growth prospects.”
Apple is already has a similar market capitalization to Google, Microsoft’s other big rival. Apple has doubled annual revenues to $36.5 billion since 2005, CNBC notes, and has boosted it’s stock price by nearly 900 percent in the last decade. Microsoft’s stock has fallen 35 percent in the same period.
CoM’s Take: We’ve argued here many times that the next 20 years of personal computing will belong to the consumer, not the busines market. Apple’s ease-of-use, design chops and vertical integration put it far ahead of anyone else when it comes to delivering consumer-focused technology.
Apple has just released the 10.6.2 update to OS X, which includes scores of bug fixes and improvements, including the nasty bug that can delete your data when using a guest account.
The “Guest Account Bug” was the big one, but Apple says the update fixes sundry issues, from Exchange contacts not showing up inSpotlight search to glitchy four-finger gestures. Full list of fixes after the jump.
The update has been eagerly awaited by Snow Leopard users suffering problems from spotty WiFi to constant spinning beachballs.
The update is available through Software Update or can be downloaded as a standalone installer. It’s available in two flavors:
If you jailbreak your iPhone, the first thing you ABSOLUTELY MUST DO is change the default filesystem password.
When you jailbreak, the filesystem’s password is set to the common password “alpine.” As people usually don’t bother changing this password after performing a jailbreak, it’s really easy for hackers to get access to any jailbroken iPhone/iPod Touch on a public network.
EDIT: Just confirmed with GeoHot and it seems that at least blackra1n doesn’t install SSH by default, therefore this should not be a problem if you used blackra1n to jailbreak, unless you installed the OpenSSH package from Cydia.
An Australian hacker called Ashley Towns demonstrated this by circulating the first known iPhone worm, known as Ikee, which replaces your lockscreen wallpaper with an image of Rick Astley. Luckily Town’s Rickrolling is benign. He wrote the worm to demonstrate how easy it is to break into jailbroken iPhones.
Changing the password is quick and easy — after the jump is a tutorial showing how to change the SSH password.
Note: There is no need to follow this guide if you haven’t jailbroken your iPhone/iPod Touch.
Apple reportedly has begun shipping its 27-inch iMacs with Intel Core i5 quad-core processors to consumers who ordered the new desktop Macs in October. The company is now notifying buyers the iMacs have shipped from Shanghai. Apple had said it would ship the new Core i5 and i7 quad-core Macs in November.
The new iMacs include a 27-inch screen with 16:9 ratio and 2560×1440 resolution. The 2.66 GHz Core i5 750 iMac retails for $1,999 with a $200 build-to-order alternative includes a 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 860 processor. Both quad-core iMacs sport 8MB L3 cache with the “Nehalem” Core i7 reportedly 2.4 times quicker than the Core 2 Duo.
Along with a 27-inch screen, the new iMacs offer 4GB SDRAM expandable to 16GB. The desktop machines also include an ATI Radeon HD 4850 discrete graphics, 1TB Serial ATA hard drive and a slot-loading 8x SuperDrive.
We’ve seen this before: A company that’s built a reputation offering stuff to the budget-minded shopper suddenly does an about face and starts wooing the uptown crowd. Sometimes it works brilliantly; often it’s a misfire.
Earlier this year, it was iHome’s turn at bat. The company, well-known for their cleanly simple, inexpensive line of iPod/iPhone accessories, stepped in a bold new direction with the release of their flagship iP1 iPod dock, a product that costs double their previously most-expensive item.
Hit the jump to find out if iHome struck out or hit a home run with the iP1.
