Whether you love video games or not, there’s no doubt that games like Halo and Dead Space feature some incredible artwork to breathe life into the make-believe worlds populated by crazed gamers looking for thrills.
Usually a game studio will publish a physical book of all the fantastic concept drawings and sketches that helped bring form to a video game, but Titan Books is releasing the latest Dead Space and Halo art books on iPad this week instead.
In yet another projection, DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim told CNET today that the second version of the amazing iPad Mini will indeed have a retina display, and that LG will be the main supplier of the pixel-packed screen, instead of Samsung.
“Samsung is currently not in the iPad Mini and they won’t be in the next generation. LGD is becoming a much bigger supplier than before,” said Shim, continuing that other manufacturers are slated to make the new screens, but they won’t have as prominent role.
While the production timeline Shim is predicting flies directly in the face of earlier predictions, Shim could be accurate, as a summer 2013 production run would make better sense for getting supplies ready for a holiday demand.
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has issued a note to investors in which he says the second-generation iPad mini with Retina display won’t enter mass production until October due to yield issues with the new high-resolution display. If true, the problem could make a fall launch for the device very unlikely.
Many of us thought Twitter was content to watch its Mac app die a slow and painful death, as the company hasn’t updated the app in forever, but new life has been breathed into the app at last.
Twitter just announced an update for the Twitter Mac app that brings Retina display support, better photo sharing, and support for 14 more languages. The app icon also received an update, along with the tweet composer, in what is the first update in nearly two years.
Here’s Twitter’s list of updates:
You don’t necessarily have to spend $1,200+ on a new MacBook Pro to get a computer with a Retina display. Providing you’re happy to pull apart your iPad and you know what you’re doing with a soldering iron, you can build your a Retina display for your PC.
That’s what Polish hacker Andrzej did.
Remember when we used to switch resolutions on our computers? No, probably not. That’s because only old people experienced the pain of doing such a thing manually – these days our monitors are built in to our computers, and the pixel-mapping is done by the OS.
Unless you have a new Retina MacBook Pro that is. Now there might actually be a reason to switch resolutions. But who wants to dig around in System Preferences? Instead, you can use Pupil.
Remember that fifth-generation iPad mould that we reported on earlier this week? Well, its source has now obtained what is believed to be the casing for Apple’s rumored low-cost iPhone.
It’s made of polycarbonate plastic just like the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS, and it will reportedly pack a 3.5-inch display like previous iPhones — yet it’s both taller and wider than the iPhone 4S. It may also get its grand unveiling this October.
EA and Maxis have today announced that their latest SimCity game is coming to the Mac on June 11, and pre-purchasing will begin tomorrow, April 11. The title will be available to download through Origin for Mac — which launched earlier this year — and those who have already bought the title on PC will get the Mac version for free.
When the MacBook Pro with Retina Display first came out, it could make a fair claim towards being “the highest-resolution notebook ever.”
Now that Google has unveiled the Pixel, a $1,300 Chromebook that does nothing but run a browser but boasts an even more pixel-dense 12.85-inch display than the MacBook Pro, though, Apple has had to change their slogan.
There’s never been much chance that Apple was going to release a new iPad mini with Retina display before later this year.
Although it’s true that Apple refreshed the fourth-gen iPad last just eight months after introducing the third-gen iPad, that refresh had the hallmark of being an exception aimed at making sure every iOS device was compatible with the new Lightning cable.
So it’s unlikely we’re going to see a Retina iPad mini this spring, and here’s further proof: current iPad mini sales aren’t tapering off, giving Apple no reason to upgrade their mini any earlier than necessary.
In response to Samsung’s Galaxy S4 announcement last Thursday, Apple has updated the iPhone 5 pages of its website to remind visitors why people love the iPhone. “Loving it is easy. That’s why so many people do,” the landing page reads, before going on to list all the reasons why the Cupertino company’s smartphone is so popular.
Alfred 2 makes its debut today, delivering a whole host of improvements and new features to the best launcher utility available on the Mac. Users can now enjoy an app completely rebuilt from the ground up to introduce things like Workflows, the ability to apply new themes, and improved search.
Being in business with Apple can’t be all that bad right now. Despite a report this morning that claimed Apple’s suppliers experienced weak sales in February, there are a few Apple suppliers that are hiring more employees to meet demand.
Both TSMC and Hon Hai are looking to hire 5,000 new employees, which might mean that Apple really is looking to ditch Samsung in favor of TSMC.
Apple hasn’t announced the iPhone 5S yet, but Chinese clone specialist GooPhone has already created a cheap knockoff of it. And it has done a pretty incredible job. As you’ll see in the video below, the “i5S” looks identical to the real thing, and you probably wouldn’t even know it was a clone. That is, until you started using it.
This week on The CultCast—finally—it’s time to talk iPhone 5S and iPad 5! We’ll tell you why April and August might be bringing you the tasty new iDevices, and if they’ll be drastically different than the models we’ve already got.
Then, is Apple is a innovation lull? Ex-Apple CEO John Scully thinks so. We’ll tell you what we think is really going on.
Subscribe to The CultCast now on iTunes to download our newest episode, or easily stream new and previous episodes via Apple’s free Podcasts App.
Show notes up next!
BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS — As I was walking around the show floor at MWC today, I noticed a number of smartphones that looked very familiar — yet they were being paraded by Chinese companies I’d never heard of. I saw what looked like a large iPhone 5, an entire range of Samsung Galaxy devices, and a number of high-end HTC handsets.
Except they weren’t really Apple, Samsung, or HTC devices at all; they were actually cheap clones that were trying their best to look like the real thing. They even had fake accessories that were identical to the originals.
The iPad mini would be perfect, if only it had a Retina display. Many have assumed that Apple will bump up the specs on the iPad mini display this year, but other than a rear shell, we haven’t seen any solid hardware leaks yet.
According to a new report though, Apple is definitely going to add a Retina display to the iPad mini this year. In fact, they’ve ordered the initial units, and mass production of the mini Retina displays has already begun in full force.
Google has just unveiled an absolutely mystifying new product apparently created by insane millionaires, for even crazier millionaires: the Pixel, a $1,300 Chromebook with a Retina-like display. Although it’s attractive and well specced, it might be the most inexplicable product announced this year.
AU Optronics, a display manufacturer that produces panels for the iPad mini, has reportedly caught up with its orders following poor yield rates during the second half of 2012. The company has produced one million displays for the device, according to industry sources, and it has now begun work on its next project — a new display for the next-generation iPad mini.
With Tuesday’s’s announcement of a 128GB iPad 4, Apple is clearly signaling that the iPad is not only suitable for serious work, but that it can be the primary machine for many users. Most commenters have fixated on fitting extra movies and other consumables into the extra 64GB of space, but they’re forgetting about work.
In fact, I’d say that the iPad With Retina Display, as Apple now insists on calling it, is the new desktop machine, and the iPad mini is the new laptop. Why? Let me explain:
Apple has settled a lawsuit with Swiss photographer Sabine Liewald over the alleged misuse of a photograph of an eyeball that the Cupertino company used during a keynote presentation for its Retina MacBook Pro. News of the settlement came in an order of dismissal issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Thursday, January 3, but the terms of the deal are unclear at this point.
It’s taken about 6 months, but Mozilla has managed to officially Retina-ize its Firefox browser on the Mac. A beta release of Firefox brought Retina support back in November 2012, but today’s public release of version 18 brings it to the masses.
Seidio, a leading manufacturer of mobile accessories, has today announced the OBEX, the latest addition to its lineup of iPhone 5 accessories. In addition to offering unbeatable impact protection, the OBEX is completely waterproof and dust-tight, protecting your delicate device from liquids, snow, and even mud.
This is an awesome spot by Daring Fireball’s John Gruber: the Retina assets in iTunes 11 are so detailed that the Up Next icon actually has tiny little numbers next to the bullet points. Check it out full-size here.
Via: Reddit
On our brand new CultCast, we talk rumors of a new iPad 5 and mini in March and the features we think Apple needs to build into iOS 7, but we couldn’t help wrap the show with our favorite movies of 2012. Why? Cause it’s just that slow of a news week! What better time to have an episode where anything goes?
So we get crazy on this week’s CultCast, even talking about burlesque dancing and whether Xbox or Playstation is the right system for you.
It’s an all-new Mad-Maxian new episode of CultCast! Subscribe to on iTunes or easily stream new and previous episodes via Apple’s free Podcasts App.
