Cult of Mac

What it is: HippoRemote is an incredibly powerful remote control application for iPhone that enables you to control any Mac application from across the room. Though optimized for media apps like Plex Media Server or Boxee, it can do just about anything — including launching Spotlight from the keyboard.

Why it’s cool: Because it finally puts every possible thing you could do on a Mac at your fingertips. It uses Mac OS X’s built-in Screen Sharing features to provide a very responsive multi-touch trackpad that moves around with you. It also offers a keyboard including F-keys and command keys that can be viewed in Portrait or in Landscape. It’s absolutely seamless. It also includes 23 application-specific suites of buttons, so you have video controls for iTunes or Plex movies, but audio controls when you’re just listening to a song. Other apps, most notably Rowmote Pro, offer identical functionality, but this one just feels more accurate — possibly because it uses VNC Screen Sharing instead of a third-party program. I’m actually writing this on my iPhone into my Mac right now, and there’s virtually no lag. Additionally, it’s worked without a hitch. Simply fuss free, and perfect for your living room Mac mini.

Where to get it: HippoRemote sells for $5 in the App Store.

We’ve written about a number of incidents where a waterproof iPhone would come in handy, including accidental pool dunking and a few protective devices. But do you really need a USB hard drive that’ll pass military water-proof and shock-proof tests? That’s seems to be the selling point of A-Data’s SH93.

The SH93 (no price yet) claims to withstand water for 30 minutes at a depth of 1 meter. Additionally, the hard drive, which is available in 250GB, 320 GB, 500GB and 640GB capacity, has passed the military’s drop test. Although the unit has passed the military’s tests, A-Data notes there is no guarantee that the hard drive or data won’t be lost – and urges consumers not to splash water on the drive, just to verify that waterproof claim.

The claims of shock and water protection for hard drives is akin to the car commercials illustrating automobiles climbing mountains, running rings of fire and other hazards unlikely to be encountered while driving to the corner grocer.

As for useful features, the hard drive is equipped with rugged rubber outer protection, a USB cord that can be wrapped around the case and a cold blue LED.

[Via Gadget Lab]

From the start, the Mac mini was seen as the perfect way to serve up video and audio to your home television. Trouble was, with the advent of high-definition pictures, your mini and HD sets had a bit of a failure to communicate. When Apple created the mini, it would interface with the world using the Mini DisplayPort standard – which was great if you had an Apple monitor, but for the rest of the planet, it was a bit like speaking only Klingon.

Kanex has introduced a bridge of sorts, an adapter which sits between your Mini DisplayPort output and your high-def television’s HDMI video and audio input. The upshot? The adapter will “turn a DisplayPort video signal into a 1080p signal over HDMI, and will even integrate either digital or analog audio into the mix,” Engadget writes.

The $70 unit grabs power from the USB port, eliminating the need for yet another power brick and associated cables for your HD entertainment setup.

Earlier this year Monoprice.com announced it would offer MacBook owners a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter for $14.25.

Kanex said its adapter works with Unibody MacBooks, MacBook Pros, the MacBook Air and iMac, along with the Mac Mini.

[Via iClarified, Engadget and Kanex]

The latest corporate apple to be taken to court by Apple is Woolworths, an Australian supermarket chain.

They 80-year-old company restyled their “W” to look like an apple, meant to symbolize fresh produce.

Apple’s lawyers are seeing red, just as they did with the Canadian school, and hope to convince IP Australia, the federal agency that governs trademarks down under, to repeal Woolworths’ application, made last August, to trademark its new logo, according to The Age.

We start the week with more discounted MacBook Pro laptops, plus a $15 deal on the business-oriented Automaton for Mac software, completing our top trio with a new round of App Store freebies.

For details on these and other bargains (such as a memory foam notebook sleeve for MacBook Pro laptops), check out CoM’s “Daily Deals” page coming up right after this jump.

Swedish design firm Ocean Observations has created this interesting mock-up of an Exposé-like feature for the iPhone.

The rare Apple I we noted was going to go on the block about a month ago has sold on eBay for nearly $18,000, a couple of grand over what guesstimates had it valued at $14,000 – $16,000.

And that’s without knowing whether it actually works: in the eBay description, seller Monroe Postman notes:

“I do not know if it is functional and I do not intend to power it up. If a trace on the board were to burn up due to a shorted component, it would radically decrease its value as an historical artifact and as, in my mind, a work of art (signed by the artist!). A few of the chips were missing when I purchased it and they have been replaced with the proper ones, although dated a year or two later, in some cases.”

If the buyer wants to come forward and talk about the purchase, CoM is all ears.

Thanks to eagle-eyed reader Bob who alerted us in the comments.

The best thing about going to the office is having access to the copier in the mail room. Sneak in at the weekend, roll off hundreds of color copies for your secret art project.

But HP has a fantastic home-office alternative: the Photosmart Premium Fax All-in-One Printer, Scanner, Fax, Copier. It does everything the industrial ones do, yet costs less than $200. A snap to set up and prints from the iPhone. It’s the best printer I’ve ever had. Weird, I know, but I really do love this baby.

Hit the jump for the full review.

It’s Friday Sunday and it’s time for our weekly digest of tiny iPhone reviews, courtesy of iPhoneTiny.com, with some extra commentary exclusive to Cult of Mac.

Under review this week: Diorama, Bust-a-Move/Puzzle Bobble, Darkness, Nag-O-Meter Deluxe, Glypha, Rugby Zone, Otakukous and EPSN ScoreCenter. As always, all id.gd links are to the relevant App Store page.

I get all tingly when a manufacturer offers up a gadget with cool features and out-of-the-box design; but then it’s a huge bummer when the gadget’s features don’t live up to expectations. Worse is when those exotic features end up being a hindrance compared with tried-and-tested ones.

And that’s exactly the case with the Jabra BT650s HALO stereo Bluetooth headset.

Full review after the jump.

Have a question? Aardvark Mobile is a great iPhone app that will find a real person to answer it – usually within minutes. It is a wonderfully useful app and has the potential to be an iPhone mainstay for years to come.

Aardvark Mobile is the latest addition to Aardvark: a social question and answer service that emerged from its beta phase earlier this year. Before Aardvark Mobile, users could only communicate with Aardvark through IM or email. The upshot of this was that if you needed a question answered from your iPhone, you had to go through your email or instant messaging app. In most circumstances you were better off finding an answer on your own using Google – even on an iPhone 2G.

But now Aardvark Mobile makes using Aardvark with an iPhone a cinch. So easy in fact, it makes Googling questions from your iPhone seem cumbersome and antiquated.

Apple’s products are generally well built and very dependable. When things do go wrong, Apple normally backs its products with excellent technical support and warranty service. Normally, if your Mac or iPhone develops a problem, Apple’s return policies or warranty service will make it right.

In spite of Apple’s best efforts, some Apple products manifest chronic problems — they’re “lemons.” What follows is a guide, which details some of your options should you get stuck with a lemon.

You’ll have to read through and decipher if this update applies to you but the Dev-Team has released Pwanage Tool 3.1 for the iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch 2G.

Using Pwnage Tool 3.1 you can upgrade your iPhone 3GS or iPod Touch 2G to firmware 3.1 as long as your device is currently running a custom (jailbreak)  3.0 or 3.0.1 firmware.

Those of us who are not able to jailbreak because our phones shipped with 3.1 or hastily ran the update to 3.1 and can’t go back will have to wait a while longer for freedom.

On Monday, Cult of Mac release a handy and complete guide to jailbreaking your device, which can help you use this newly released Pwnage Tool to update your device.

Roger Åberg of MacFeber.se has posted a quick unboxing video and first look at the highly-anticipated TomTom Car Kit for iPhone. The $120 accessory looks pretty solid, well-designed and sticks easily to the windshield. See the video above.

Link.

Here’s what Apple’s rumored new multitouch mouse might look like, courtesy of MacBlogz.

Via 9to5 Mac.

Almost everyone has a love-hate relationship with their bathroom scales. We worry about that extra slice of cake adding on the pounds, but dread the confirmation coming from the hulking scales with the dial which spins like some one-arm bandit. If only there was a kinder way to keep tabs on our weight; a more iPhone-like method. Well, Withings’ Wi-Fi Body scale comes pretty close.

Let’s start with the design. At just 0.9 inches high and with that brushed metal and sleek glass look, the Wi-Fi Body Scale complements your iPhone. Along with 802.11g connectivity, the scale includes a free iPhone app allowing you to track your weight and BMI.

Two music companies representing rapper Eminem have settled out of court with Apple over a download dispute.

Eminem’s publisher, Eight Mile Style, and his record company, Aftermath Records, sued Apple for allegedly making the rappers music available for download without permission.The rapper was not involved in the case.

The details of the settlement are confidential, the Associated Press reports.

Remember the great Eminem iTunes commercial based on “Lose Yourself?” Here it is again:

There’s frustration over stuff like dropped calls and tethering troubles, then, you know, there’s Frustration.

The latter was apparently what fueled Donald Goodrich, 38, to threaten to pull a gun on his iPhone at the Kenwood Towne Centre Apple Store in Cinncinati.

Goodrich came in with an iPhone that wasn’t working properly, telling the employee he was “So mad, I could pop a 9mm at it.”

To prove he meant business, Goodrich flashed the employee a gun hidden under his jacket.

The cool-headed employee told Goodrich she’d get his phone fixed and walked him over to a Genius. She then told her manager of his iHomicidal intentions, who called police.

Goodrich was charged with aggravated menacing, causing fear of harm to an Apple employee. He’s expected to be arraigned this morning.

No word on exactly what drove him to want to kill his phone.

Any guesses?

Via KY post, ifoapplestore

I didn’t know until today that the iPhone had created its own branch of videography – iPhoneography. That’s the reason flexible tripod-maker Joby gives for introducing the Gorillamobile for the 3G and GS. “The proliferation of ‘iPhoneography,’ in addition to the 3GS’ video and camera upgrade, has only increased the already demonstrated need for an adaptable iPhone stand,” Joby CEO Forrest Baringer-Jones said.

Joby has adapted its line of Gorillapod tripods for the iPhone. Unlike previous versions, which attached to the iPhone via a suction cup, the Gorillamobile includes a custom soft-touch iPhone case that then connects directly to the articulated Gorillamobile tripod.

Along with the case, the Gorillamobile includes two-dozen bendable leg joints that can be positioned in endless combinations. Rubberize foot grips provide a stable contact with any surface.

Just in case you want to switch-out your iPhone for another camera, the tripod comes with two adhesive clips that leave no messy residue and a universal camera mount.

The $40 price of the tripod set is reasonable, according to Gadget Lab. “Compare that to the average $30 for an iPhone case and it looks like a pretty good value,” wrote Charlie Sorrel.

There have been previous attempts to find the ultimate iPhone tripod. Over the summer, Zgrip unveiled the Zgrip iPhone Jr. which included multiple “fingers” that grasped the iPhone. The Zgrip iPhone Jr. then attached to a standard tripod. An innovative alternative was the Monsterpod, an orange and black blob of Viscoelastic Polymer, allowing the ufo-shaped device to stick to virtually any surface.

[Via Joby and Gadget Lab]

Veteran pop artist David Hockney has been demonstrating his passion for creating works on his iPhone since he started fingerpainting on one six months ago.

Turns out Hockney first got his hands on an iPhone one a year ago, when he grabbed it from Lawrence Weschler,  writer and director of the New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University.

Weschler interviews Hockney about it what reads like a 1,528-word love letter to the iPhone for the New York Review of Books.

There’s been a lot on the 72-year-old’s use of the iPhone, not so much about how he gets the mini-masterpieces on touch screens.

Hockney’s technique? He doesn’t finger paint as much as thumb paint those flowers and landscapes he sends to friends daily.

Hockney limits his contact with the screen exclusively to the pad of his thumb. “The thing is,” Hockney explains, “if you are using your pointer or other fingers, you actually have to be working from your elbow. Only the thumb has the opposable joint which allows you to move over the screen with maximum speed and agility, and the screen is exactly the right size, you can easily reach every corner with your thumb.” He goes on to note how people used to worry that computers would one day render us “all thumbs,” but it’s incredible the dexterity, the expressive range, lodged in “these not-so-simple thumbs of ours.”

Brushes is Hockney’s app for painting on the iPhone —  though a footnote to the story says the latest upgrade released in August is not to his liking and he continues to use the earlier version.

Interestingly, Hockney doesn’t think the art created is so great, once it’s off the device or a screen:

“Though it is worth noting,” he adds, “that the images always look better on the screen than on the page. After all, this is a medium of pure light, not ink or pigment, if anything more akin to a stained glass window than an illustration on paper.”

Monster’s $250 Turbine Pro ear buds are a far cry from the $50 ‘buds we wrote about Thursday. The most noticeable difference: the iFrogz Timbre earbuds are encased in wood, while the Turbine Pro is wrapped in 24k gold.

Then there is Monster’s branding campaign, describing the Turbine Pro as “in-ear speakers” rather than your run-of-the-mill earbuds. Essentially, the company has stuffed in a full-fledged driver one would expect to find in Monster’s larger home speakers. Before the Turbine Pro began shipping, reviewers, such as Boing Boing, explained earbuds typically use armature drivers which sit “directly inside a magnet, producing a considerable amount of sound without a lot of power—the low impedance is perfect for portable music players which don’t have the luxury of power pouring limitlessly from the wall,” wrote Joel Johnson.

The promotional copy strips away the technical jargon, proclaiming the Turbine Pro is “like a subwoofer for your ears.” Unlike iFrogz’ product, which hopes to infer wood equals better-quality tones, the Turbine Pro employs a high-density metal casing to absorb unwanted vibration while providing an “inert,non-resonant acoustic chamber.” To get that perfect fit, the unit comes with five isolating ear tips.

As Griffin pointed out last month with its line of MyPhones headsets for children, the cable between your iPod and your ears is the weakest link. Monster said it is shipping the Turbine Pro with the company’s patented Magnetic FluxTube technology.

If reading technical data isn’t your cup of tea, Monster’s promotional campaign is using the latest tactic to sway consumer opinion: a YouTube video. The video includes testimonials from several recording engineers and producers.

[Via Monster and Amazon Orders]

Although the $9,995 price tag was one of the reasons the computer Lisa didn’t sell well, showing some love for Lisa in T-shirt form will only set you back $32.

Often considered one of Apple’s flops, the ill-starred Lisa was the first computer on the consumer market with a graphical user interface (GUI) but despite this innovation the high cost, lack of software programs and general sluggishness led it to the computer graveyard in 1983 after two years and 100,000 units sold.

Bruce Tognazzini, the interface guru at Apple once said, “The Lisa was a great machine. We just couldn’t sell any.”

Show that you agree with this T-shirt, available on Etsy.

Via iPhone Savior

We cap off the week by highlighting a trio of tactile Mac gadgets. Keyboards are likely the way most Mac cultists commune with their Apple devices. In the New York office, I change keyboards like a woman (sexist alert) might change shoes. The “professional” keyboard included with my iMac quickly gave way to Apple’s slim-line MacBook-like keyboard. Logitech’s diNovo Edge Bluetooth wireless keyboard also sports something the company describes as “TouchDisc navigation” that appears close to the iPod’s. Next up on the tactile parade are cases. It is ironic that Apple’s design team put so much effort into creating a sleek, slick and that I-just-gotta-touch exterior, only to have owners quickly hide it behind a forest of cases. We look at a new clip-on rubber case and a crystal clear protector. Finally, after keyboards and cases, cables probably are the most dragged, pulled or kicked component. Wouldn’t it be great if the snakes nest of cables could retract into a compact house? Well, we have just the gadget for you.

For details on these and other bargains, read CoM’s “Daily Deals” page.

When I was a kid, digital calculators were roughly the size of a brick, and had satisfyingly chunky displays. They also, in those pre-internet days, provided a means of minor technical mischief. Type in 5318008, flip your calculator upside down, and it appeared to say ‘boobies’. If you were five, this was the most hilarious and original gag in the history of the world.

In this modern and rather less innocent age, the media would have you believe that personal technology devices in the hands of children merely teach them how to joyride while murdering innocent puppies and simultaneously fashioning bombs out of string, jelly babies and bits of twig. It’s presumably for this reason that Apple considers it a good idea to warn you (Every. Single. Time.) when you download an eReader from the App Store that it—shock!—potentially enables you to view content that some people might deem objectionable.

Enter, stage right, James Thomson, creator of iPhone/iPod touch calculator PCalc. In a minor slice of design genius, he combined the two issues mentioned above and PCalc now slaps a huge ‘Censored!’ sign across ‘naughty’ words when your device is flipped, thereby ensuring fragile little minds aren’t warped beyond all recognition.

This is a smart, funny, satirical swipe at the recent trend towards over-zealous censorship. Unless you’re, say, Sajid Farooq of NBC, who, inexplicably takes Thomson’s joke seriously (and, sadly, he’s not alone) and states PCalc’s change would “make even George Orwell shudder in his grave”. I’m thinking Orwell would be more likely to laugh his CENSORED off.

PCalc is available on the App Store for $9.99/£5.99.

This article originally appeared on Revert to Saved.

Three’s a crowd… unless the three in question are the latest bags from hip Australian bag maker Crumpler.

Branching out from its original line of messenger bags, Crumpler now offers, amongst others, the Salary Sacrifice (a laptop rucksack), the School Hymn (a laptop clutch case) and the Barney Rustle Blanket (a messenger bag). The names are weird, but the bags aren’t.

Hit the jump for full reviews of all three.