Square just announced a huge partnership with Starbucks that will put the hot mobile payment startup in 7,000 Starbucks nationwide this fall. The news means that Square users will be able to use the app to pay at select Starbucks locations and find nearby stores in the Square Directory.
As part of the partnership, Starbucks is investing a cool $25 million in Square and the CEO of Starbucks will be joining Square’s Board of Directors. This is definitely a win-win for Square, Starbucks, and the mobile payment industry as a whole.
If your iPad is jailbroken, you won’t be able to watch anything in the Amazon Instant Video app. This isn’t the first time a content provider has blocked access to jailbreakers, but it’s certainly still disappointing.
It’s August, which means two things. One, there’s no news to report on, which means that most of a gadget blogger’s workday is taken up with siestas and refreshing beverages. And two, it’s vacation time! That’s right: The whole northern hemisphere likes to take a break at exactly the same time, all the better to enjoy congested roads, overpriced plane tickets and overcrowded hotels.
To ease your pain, we’ve put together a list of the best travel gadgets. You may not enjoy spending a hot and stuffy month with your in-laws, but at least your tech won’t let you down.
If you are an Amazon Prime subscriber or otherwise rent or buy a lot of Amazon Instant Video, you’ll have a one word reaction to this story: finally. Amazon has just released an official Instant Video app for the iPad.
djay now looks great on the new MacBook Pro's Retina display.
Algoriddim, creators of popular music player djay on the Mac, iPhone and iPad, today announced a huge update for the Mac version. Not only has djay been updated with support for the newly-released OS X Mountain Lion, but Algoriddim has also optimized the app for the new MacBook Pro with Retina display. Thanks to the enhanced AirPlay functionality in Mountain Lion, djay users can also wirelessly stream audio from the Mac app to any AirPlay-enabled speakers or Apple TV.
The 2012 Olympic Games are set to kick off in less than 2 hours, so we wanted to make sure you had some apps and links to ensure you don’t miss a single lap, dive, punch, or round-off. You’ll find a list of the top apps and a few websites to keep you on track and in the game. Feel free to check them out, or if you have any other suggestions, throw them up in the comments. Now let the games begin!
Following other recent celebrity Siri promos, film director Martin Scorsese has made his way into Apple’s latest TV spot. Scorsese is seen rapid-firing questions at Siri in a taxi cab, asking about appointments, the traffic, and where to find one of his friends.
A consulting firm has discovered that Apple’s existing iOS 6 betas will only support up to 500 installed apps at any one time, and that with any more than that, devices suffer from slow boot times, random reboots, and “other issues.” The firm has had to convince Apple that users need support for more than 500 apps to have the limit lifted.
Various iCloud users are reporting that 20th Century Fox movies are now available for re-download via iTunes in the cloud. As Cult of Mac reported mid-March, Universal and Fox studios weren’t able to close a deal with Apple for iCloud availability due to licensing conflicts with HBO.
Universal Studios content was released for iCloud availability soon after, in April. Now it’s Fox Studios’ turn.
iPad owners are more likely to read news and prefer to get their news via the iPad instead of in print or on TV.
A recent Reynolds Journalism Institute study indicates that the iPad is becoming a primary vehicle for many users to consume (read, listen to, or watch) daily local, national, and world news and that it is leading a revolution in terms of how frequently people read news as well as how much news they read on a daily or weekly basis.
The survey noted that the iPad is the preferred large media tablet on the market with news consumers surveyed with an 88% share of that market. The Kindle Fire was the top pick among small media tablets with 68% of the news consumer market. The iPhone was the overall preferred smartphone with 39% of the news consumer market.
It also noted that the iPad (and other large tablet devices) seem to be encouraging news reading among all demographics including young adults. Among young adults (18 – 24 years old), 67% read news on one or more mobile devices and averaged five hours of news reading/consumption per week. Among young adults with iPads, 84% read news on their device(s) for an average of 7.3 hours per week.
