AT&T announced today the availability of free WiFi access for its iPhone customers at thousands of hotspots nationwide. The company sent text messages to iPhone users and put up an informational web page noting the new service, but some greeted the news with skepticism based on aborted rollouts of the service in May and in July.
Among the hotspots slated to offer the service are airports, hotels and other public locations where one often must pay a fee to access WiFi networks. AT&T even offers a handy Starbucks location finder on its web page. After reading about this I was in the mood for an afternoon coffee, so I went to one of the several Starbucks in my neighborhood and, lo and behold, it worked.
Now, if it works the next time I’m in an airport, I’ll be really stoked.
Good news: you may already have the black mock-neck, 501s, New Balance sneakers and an iPod Touch in your wardrobe.
Bad news: any costume you have to explain a few times until everyone is too drunk to care isn’t your best bet.
The Unofficial Senator John S. McCain iPhone Application is an amusing little diversion available for jailbroken iPhones. Made by a Portland, OR-based developer named Alex, who describes himself as “just a guy who makes stuff and puts it on the internet”, the app may have been rejected by The AppStore even before the senator himself has had the opportunity to be rejected by America’s voters.
‘Tis the season for carving interesting designs into pumpkins and Apple fans never miss an opportunity to show their loyalty. Check out our gallery of ghoulish gourds and if you’ve got a Mac-o-lantern to show off, send it in to our photo submission email address; we’ll feature entries on the site.
Instructables shows you how to turn an old Mac itself into a Mac-o-lantern, and you can see another page full of Apple carved pumpkins at The Apple Collection.
Apple’s gross margin for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 is expected to “well-exceed management’s guidance of 30 percent,” Financial Alchemist blogger Turley Muller commented Wednesday.
Turley, one a few financial bloggers who’s predictions closely mirrored Apple’s fourth quarter results, said the Cupertino, Calif. company is acting wisely, given the economy.
“This cushion should help Apple exceed earnings expectations even if the economy adversely affects its business,” the blogger wrote.
Handset maker Motorola has reportedly decided to focus on the open-source Android platform, dropping most of its other cell phone designs – as well as more employees.
“They were like a drunk asking for another drink in the software area,” Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney explained to Cult of Mac.
After laying-off 10,000 employees and unsuccessfully attempting to regain its past glory, the Schaumburg, Ill.-based company will cut at least four handset platforms, choosing to concentrate on Android and two other handsets, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources Wednesday.
John McCain and Barack Obama gave a list of their top 10 tracks for Blender this summer:
BARACK OBAMA
1. Ready or Not Fugees
2. What’s Going On Marvin Gaye
3. I’m On Fire Bruce Springsteen
4. Gimme Shelter Rolling Stones
5. Sinnerman Nina Simone
6. Touch the Sky Kanye West
7. You’d Be So Easy to Love Frank Sinatra
8. Think Aretha Franklin
9. City of Blinding Lights U2
10. Yes We Can will.i.am
JOHN McCAIN
1. Dancing Queen ABBA
2. Blue Bayou Roy Orbison
3. Take a Chance On Me ABBA
4. If We Make It Through December Merle Haggard
5. As Time Goes By Dooley Wilson
6. Good Vibrations The Beach Boys
7. What A Wonderful World Louis Armstrong
8. I’ve Got You Under My Skin Frank Sinatra
9. Sweet Caroline Neil Diamond
10. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes The Platters
As the campaign winds down, journalists scrambling for something to say have analyzed these iPod ready playlists again.
Would either of these rock your vote, one way or the other?
I was amused to see early shots of the latest Dell OptiPlex desktops. These are pretty much the mainline of Dell’s line-up, and are among the most popular desktop PCs in the country. Electronista talked about the new line-up’s “industrial, metal” look, which Dell credits for dramatic reductions in power consumption. And despite Dell’s much-remarked-upon commitment to industrial design, the new boxes are incredibly hideous.
Why? Because Dell is perfectly willing to sacrifice a design vision in order to save on manufacturing costs. Compare the box at left to a Mac Pro. Both have metal grill faces, but only one is metal all over and uses modified commodity components in order to maintain a consistent look. Dell, meanwhile, dropped in ugly black plastic components for the drives and sides, presumably because it was a lot easier than speccing a custom mold for all parts. AND they left in the floppy drive, a full 10 years after Apple ditched it.
This, in a nutshell, is the difference between Apple and nearly every other computer company on earth (Sony might be the one exception, and HP is improving): Apple just won’t compromise. If a computer is going to be an imposing metal tower that recalls a steel factory, it will be that all over, even if it’s nearly impossible to engineer. A company like Dell, on the other hand, will throw such interesting design ideas out as soon they get hard to pull off. Apple is committed to engineering designs exactly as crafted, down to the millimeter and the routing of interior cables. A company like Dell wants to provide just enough design and taste that people aren’t actively repulsed by its products.
Stickers on your Mac are a colorful, yet old-school way to personalize your gear. Kind of like what you used to see on the guitar cases and road gear of traveling musicians back in the day.
Thanks to commenter karina Grotz, we’ve learned about EtchStar, the creative technology company that will custom laser engrave your Mac, iPhone, or just about anything, with something from their hundreds of pre-made images or even with original art of your own.
It’s all the rage among the iCelebrity set down in LA and does offer a unique way to show your style, brand your gear and create something of a theft deterrent.
You’ll remember the $1000 iPhone app, I Am Rich, that made it to the AppStore in August just because it could. Well, for a savings of $100 you can get an app that actually does something useful, like monitor your multiple IP based surveillance cameras.
For only $900 Lextech Labs’ iRa serves the mobility needs of the high-end security industry, enabling users to view multiple video feeds and directly control pan-tilt-zoom cameras from their iPhone or iPod Touch.
iRa is not something you just download and off you go, however. Interested parties are strongly encouraged to locate a surveillance equipment integrator before purchasing the app. End users who download iRa from the iPhone App Store must have a working knowledge of network and digital camera system installation and configuration, with support for the app and for configuring hardware available exclusively through local integrators.
Once installed and properly configured, users can enjoy easy viewing of many video feeds in full screen video view or thumbnail view; pan, tilt and zoom control camera motion; use the touchscreen’s familiar finger drag and pinch controls; and get automatic discovery of properly configured network cameras.
Custom made or off the rack, these cashmere cases from Italian company iKashmir, or IK for short, dress your Apple gear in style. We’re especially fond of the black kimono models, but more classic button-down men’s and women’s sweater styles are also in the mix.
Available for your iPod, iPhone and laptop in range of colors and in wool felt, right now you’ll have to visit the Milan showroom to get them.
Giant discount retailer Walmart has slashed its price for MP3 music to 74 cents, challenging both leader Apple and Amazon. The Bentonville, Ark. chain also announced Tuesday it’s MP3 store will offer a free download with each music CD purchased.
The new pricing is limited to what Walmart calls its “Top 25,” songs from such artists as Coldplay, Nickelback and Carrie Underwood.
Recycling in my building is vetted by an angry old man who knows exactly what to do with Tetra Pak, then loudly berates anyone who doesn’t get it right.
For those of you who don’t have such a helpful neighbor there’s Recycler. Siavash Ghamaty developed a free iPhone app that helps you keep track of what plastic recyclables are allowed in your local pickup.
San Diego-based Ghamaty says he developed it “to remind myself of what items I can throw into my recycling and which just don’t go.”
It looks pretty no-frills, but it could save some headaches.
What is it about MacBooks and stickers? What drives people to cover that pristine white (or black) plastic with other people’s brands and logos?
Some people even start putting stickers on the inside. Maybe they ran out of space on the outside.
But now, you see, I’m wondering. Who has the most stickered MacBook of them all? Should that even be a contest that people would want to win? Are the MacBook-stickerers good or are they bad?
So who’s got the most-stickered Macbook around here? Links to your be-stickered masterpieces, please.
Google introduced Earth for the iPhone and iPod touch today with a free version of the fascinating desktop program that literally puts the whole world in your hands. I’ve spent a good portion of the morning playing around with it and am pleased to report the satellite imagery and 3D terrain effects are quite amazing.
Earth makes impressive use of touch screen technology and Apple’s accelerometer, letting you spin the globe with a swipe of your finger and literally tilt your view to the curvature of the earth to see the terrain of whatever place you’re visiting. The application has a ton of information and labeling built in, with links to over 8 million Panoramio photographs and Wikipedia articles you can read within Earth or jump to in Safari.
Google’s handy two minute video linked above explains the app pretty well, and there’s additional information at the Google Earth and Maps Team blog.
I’ve also posted below a gallery of screenshots from my journey this morning. Based on my initial experience, I’d say Google Earth is likely to become a popular time wasting app in a hurry.
“High School Musical” star Vanessa Hudgens is almost never without an iPhone. She hides behind it and prefers to consult it rather than notice that she’s with beau-star Zac Efron in Paris.
Still, even she has to put it down every once in awhile. Here Hudgens catches a limo toting a Mac laptop, dangerously sans case.
You may wonder how people at rock concerts wave lighters in the air now that only pariahs smoke and carry Bics.
Enter “American Idol” winner David Cook, whose new single Light On can be downloaded from iTunes for $1.99. It comes with a “lighter” app that illuminates the screen of an iPhone or iPod Touch.
“There’s a little semblance of rock mythos to it,” says the 25-year-old carefully scruffy Cook. “You get a lighter during a rock ballad and nobody burns their thumbs.”
Eco-friendly, yeah. Non-inflammatory. Sure. Cool, not really. You could turn the screen of your iPod or iPhone on and wave it around without an app. But it does open the way for music-related apps. Disturbia anyone?
The grown-up version of Juicy Couture’s jelly iPhone cases, this black or dusky pink leather case with a clear plastic cover brings the bling with a gold chain and charms.
For some time, you could hardly read about Apple without “iPod-maker” following closely behind in press and analyst comments. However, that symbiotic description is dated, according to one of the rising stars among unpaid Apple watchers, Andy Zaky.
Zaky, who watches Apple sales figures from his post at Bullish Cross, wrote Monday iPod sales contributed just 14.2 percent to the fourth quarter revenue of the Cupertino, Calif. company.
By this time in 2009, the iPhone will replace the iPod as the second-greatest revenue generator for Apple, next to Mac sales, the blogger wrote. Last week, Apple reported selling 6 million iPhones for the quarter.
The blogger is among a new breed of Apple analysts not employed by financial houses to provide estimates and insight. Fortune recently gave bloggers the nod over pros in predictions on Apple’s recent Q4 report.
Few things rankle a Mac user more than seeing new and interesting products and services rolled out that only work on PC. In my household, Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” is at the top of this maddening list. Basically, anyone with a Netflix account and sufficiently fast PC can watch any of 12,000 movies direct from Netflix servers at no extra charge. It hasn’t come to Macs because the service relies on PC-only DRM. And this drives my wife nuts. As she sees it, she’s already paying Netflix for service, and since that subscription now includes streaming she can’t use, she’s getting charged for a phantom service.
I can’t say I disagree.
At any rate, Netflix today proclaimed that this sad state of affairs won’t continue for long. Starting tomorrow, a limited number of Mac subscribers will be able to use Watch Instantly via a new version of the software rooted in Microsoft’s Silverlight technology (it’s a lot like Flash). Since Silverlight bakes in the PC DRM, it runs fine on a Mac and takes no additional tweaking to function.
Unfortunately, the new platform will be rolled out slowly, with Netflix only promising support for all Intel Mac users by the end of the year. So it might be awhile before Netflix stops getting the stinkeye from my apartment.
Apple’s giant stash of cash is a constant source of speculation in the tech world. Now standing north of $25 Billion, Apple has the money to acquire all but a few hundred companies in the world, and it makes people nervous that the Cupertino Kings won’t snatch up someone big.
Our friend Brian over at Epicenter has an interesting piece of speculation, rating the most likely and least likely acquisition targets Apple could go after during the current downturn. It’s a thought-provoking read, and it’s accompanied by a really fun poll in which readers suggest who Apple should take on. The Dell entry is priceless.
For my part, I always think that the big questions about Apple’s cash and who the company will acquire tend to be misguided. Over its entire history, Apple has shown again and again that it will buy small organizations that possess a specific technology or capability that Apple lacks. That’s the story with NeXT, it’s the story with Logic, and it’s the store with PA Semi. Other than that, Apple invests in its own ideas and its own new efforts, because Steve Jobs believes the solutions Apple needs to triumph don’t exist yet. Apple spends way more time doing its own thing than it does snapping up outsiders.
And a portion of that $25 billion is going straight back into Apple’s future – the company still needs to build that brand new campus in Cupertino, right? Not to mention, new aluminum milling processes aren’t cheap to implement, either…
Hands up if you’re a fan of Fluid, the app that turns any web site (or web application) into a standalone application. Yeah, me too.
If you’ve been following the screencasts and Twitterings of Fluid developer Todd Ditchendorf, you might have noticed some news floating around; he has now launched his official browser spin-off, Cruz.
If you’re confused about the name, don’t worry, you have every right to be. This app was going to be called “Mecca”, but then Todd changed his mind. What was that all about?
The Cult decided to get in touch with Todd and ask him to explain the background. He was kind enough to give us some answers…
UPDATE: This piece has been edited for clarity on the timeline for the legality of same-sex marriage in California.
Citing the vote as an issue of “a person’s fundamental rights,” Apple today made a $100,000 contribution to the NO on 8 campaign, an effort to defeat a measure on next Tuesday’s ballot in California that would overturn the state’s laws permitting same-sex couples to marry.
Apple’s contribution and public stance supporting the No on 8 campaign is noteworthy not only because it is rare for the company to take a public position on political matters, but also because it helps combat the effects of millions of dollars that have been spent by out-of-state religious groups on TV advertisements threatening dire consequences if gays are allowed the right to marry.
California gays and lesbians were first able to marry in 2004, when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom arranged for ceremonies at City Hall. Conflicting rulings at the state level confused the issue until the California Supreme Court ruled this year to allow gay marriages throughout the state on equal protection grounds.
The Apple announcement came on the heels of similar public support for defeating the Proposition from Google. Sergey Brin, CEO of the Mountain View-based company wrote in the company blog, “we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument [but] we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 — we should not eliminate anyone’s fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love.”
Apple’s Hot News release on the matter says, “Apple views this as a civil rights issue, rather than just a political issue, and is therefore speaking out publicly against Proposition 8.”
Continuing my personal obsession with software cameras (see recent ravings about CameraBag for the iPhone), today’s work time has been largely spent faffing about with Poladroid, a free desktop app that turns photos into Polaroids. It’s fantastic.
