SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD/IWORLD 2012 — As you walk the exhibit floor here at Moscone West, there are the much larger booths that make up the bulk of what you’ll see. But there are also some of the smaller booths — known as “pods” — that a lot of the mobile apps are housed in. There’s plenty of iOS apps being featured in this area of the hall, and plenty to discover.
One of my favourite apps I’ve found here is called — oddly enough — FavorIt, an app that lets you and your friends share what their favourite apps are with one another.
You may or may not be familiar with George Hotz, a.k.a “Geohot.” Whether you know his name or not, Hotz’s influence as a hacker is monumental. He unlocked the iPhone for the first time back in 2008, and was responsible for several of the early iOS jailbreaks. His exploits have haunted Apple for years, and he was recently sued by Sony for jailbreaking the PlayStation 3.
Hotz was hired by Facebook last summer to presumably work on the social juggernaut’s security team, but he apparently no longer works for Zuckerberg. Now Hotz been spotted back in his natural environment: a hackathon.
Xobni has brought its Smartr Contacts service to the iPhone today, which a new app that is likely to change the way in which you handle your contacts list forever. The service takes the pain out of maintaining your contacts list by creating profiles for everyone you’ve ever contacted using your emails, calendars, and social networks. It also puts a face to every name and even keeps track of your recent communication history.
Those who are trawling through the source code of Apple’s latest iOS 5.1 beta have discovered references to the company’s upcoming iPad 3, and more interestingly, hints that Facebook integration could be making its way to iOS to accompany Twitter.
TomTom’s navigation apps for the iPhone and iPad are going social with Facebook and Twitter integration that will allow you to navigate to your friends, places, and events more easily. Version 1.10 of the official app, which will launch during Q1 2012, prides itself on using social networks as a source for turn-by-turn navigation.
Adding contact information to your phone can be a tedious task, especially with devices like the iPhone, which allow you to add a whole lot more than just a name and a phone number. But there is one quick and easy way to add missing information to your address book without even touching your device’s virtual keyboard: Syncing your contacts with Facebook.
If you’re a Facebook user — and who isn’t these days? — and you have the official Facebook app installed on your device, you can add birthdays, URLs, and even photos to your address book in just a few taps.
Finland is far from the minds of most iPhone users. However, the frigid, Nordic country is huge on carriers’ radar because it is there that text messaging was born and where it could very well die. The number of Christmas Eve texts in Finland fell off a cliff, plummeting to 8.9 million from 10.9 million in 2010. With text messages accounting for 20 percent of carrier revenue, its enough to give companies nightmares — but this bad dream is far from over.
Following the rollout of its new Timeline feature earlier this month, Facebook updated its official iOS app to introduce the new feature to the iPhone. It did not introduce Timeline to the iPad, however. But according to one report, it’ll be here by late January.
Apple is offering the popular Bejeweled game for free to customers who ‘like’ the App Store on Facebook. The limited-time sale is a continuation of app giveaways that Apple has been offering on Facebook for the last couple of months.
Though it wasn’t in our readers’ top 10, Apple named Localscope the best navigation app of 2011. Yeah, well they ain’t seen nuthin’ — its new update adds a whole new exploratory facet to the app that’s arguably cooler than the app’s original focus.
According to a report from App Data, Facebook for Android garners more daily users than Facebook for iPhone. Android’s very own Facebook app boasts 58.8 million daily active users while Facebook for iPhone attracts 57.6 million.
Based on App Data’s projections, the Android adoption of Facebook’s app is accelerating faster than iPhone user adoption.
Facebook has released an update to its iPhone app that brings the highly-anticpated Timeline view to mobile users. Version 4.1 of the Facebook for iOS app brings with it the ability to access friend lists, subscribers, and subscriptions. Photo viewing and overall speed improvements are also included.
An iPad version of Timeline is coming soon, according to Facebook. Users can download the latest update for free in the App Store.
Earlier this week we reviewed the Fanny Wang On-Ear Headphones and concluded they’re a pretty great set of cans. One cool thing about the the Fanny Wang headphones we didn’t mention was that you can order a completely customized pair from the Fanny Wang website. Because we know you guys love a nice set of headphones, we’re giving away one free pair of Custom 2001 Fanny Wang On-Ear headphones to a lucky reader. You can customize them however you want and keep them for yourself, or give the coupon to a friend for the Holidays as a gift.
I’ve never been the best at math, but I’m pretty sure there are almost 1.5 million different color configurations possible, so to determine a winner for this giveaway we’re going to be taking submissions to see who can design the best pair of headphones.
If you’re an iPad user and sick of waiting for something like the Mac’s Dashboard to appear on your tablet, you’ll love to know about iDashboard, a new iPad offering that consolidates many individual apps into one screen.
Some of us have been playing with it for months, but if you’ve been looking forward to Facebook’s sexy new timeline interface, good news: it’s just gone live in New Zealand, and should be creeping out to other countries around the world soon.
At Cult of Mac we’re huge fans of going to the movies. Few experiences can compare to seeing pretty boy Ryan Gosling beating the crap out of Ron Perlman on a towering 70ft x 30ft screen. As long as the film doesn’t feature Shia LaBeouf then we’re down to watch it (sometimes we’ll even make an exception for the former Even Stevens star). The only problem is that showing up to the movie theater in your underwear is frowned upon in most countries. Thankfully, Epson makes some pretty kick ass projectors that bring the movie theater experience to your home so you don’t have to bother with those weird things called “pants.”
This week we’re really lucky to be teaming up with the awesome folks at Epson to give away a brand new iPhone-compatible projector. $700 is already a pretty awesome price for their superb projector, but because it’s Christmas, they’re generously letting us giveaway their brand new MegaPlex MG-50HD Projector for free! Without a doubt this is the coolest projector we’ve ever gotten our hands on. It comes with two built-in 10-watt speakers, a dock for your iPhone or iPad and is incredibly portable so you can take the fun with you wherever you go.
Speaking from experience, watching Home Alone and Elf on this thing will make the holidays 50 times more pleasurable no matter which of your annoying family members decides to pay you a visit for Christmas.
A few months ago, Facebook announced a partnership with Microsoft and Skype that brought Skype video calling to their desktop website, and now it’s coming to the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, according to a new report.
Apple is expected to join Facebook's data center (above) in Prineville, Oregon. [Photo by Tom Raftery - http://flic.kr/p/9wzMH2)
Apple appears to be in the final stages of deciding to create a second data center. The tech giant is reportedly eyeing 160 acres in Prineville, Oregon for a 31-megawatt facility. The location would make Apple neighbors with Google, Amazon and Facebook, companies also locating data hubs in the Northwest state known for enticing tech firms with lucrative tax breaks.
The name is well chosen. Socialcam is a cam for being social. It’s not just a cam. You need to know that before you download it, otherwise you might be put off by just how social it is.
Apple is giving away free apps from the App Store on Facebook. As it has done in the past, fans can visit Apple’s App Store Facebook page and receive a free promo code for an iOS app.
This time around, fans can get codes for Where’s My Water, a game by Disney that typically sells for $0.99. If you’ve liked the App Store Facebook page, you can redeem a code for this game today.
This week we’re really excited to announce one of the best giveaways we’ve had in a while. We’re teaming up with Monster Cable to give readers the chance to win a Monster Accessory Pack worth over $250 AND a free iPhone 4S! For this giveaway you’ll have two chances to win one of the amazing prizes we have in store for you. Here’s how to play:
Philips has released a new iOS app for the iPad 2 that allows you to measure both your heart rate and breaking rate using only your device’s camera. Unlike similar apps that require additional accessories, this one claims to get its results from “the color of your face” and “the motion of your chest.”
Mixel is a free digital art and social networking app for iPad. It works beautifully; you and your kids will love it. The only downer is its unfortunate requirement that you link it to Facebook. No Facebook means no Mixel.
