The square cropped photo has never been more popular thanks to Instagram. There are a lot of benefits to being challenged to shoot within the confines of Instagram’s square — plus square photos make for easier browsing — but a lot of times cropping down to a square cuts out a lot of beautiful shot.
Even though Instagram forces users to upload square pictures, there are lots of ways to get around it. Not only can you post oblong pictures at whichever aspect ratio you want, you can also crop images into circles, triangles, and all sorts of other shapes.
Here’s our guide on how to break out of Instagram’s square:
Following word that Apple’s iAd team is being restructured to allow for tighter integration with iOS 7’s new streaming music feature, iRadio, a new report talks just about how the ads on iRadio are going to work, how Apple’s going to make money on iRadio, and how much Apple’s paying the labels to make it happen.
Apple has been using ideas that originated in the jailbreak community for years. A jailbreak tweak called MobileNotifier enhanced push notifications in iOS 4, and Apple hired the guy who made it and released Notification Center in iOS 5. Jailbreakers were doing multitasking and tethering before Apple too.
Looking ahead at iOS 7, I honestly have no idea what to expect from Apple. Jony Ive has never really been a big fan of skeuomorphism, so flatter and more minimalist graphics wouldn’t surprise me. Some truly innovate ideas for enhancing the iOS experience have arisen in the past year, and I think it would be foolish for Apple to not at least draw inspiration from these three.
Every year thousands of Apple developers flock to San Francisco to attend Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference to be educated in all things Apple. Over the past decade the conference has undergone some big changes as Apple has introduced products like the iPhone, Mac Pro, Intel Processors, Mac OS X operating systems, and much more.
An event that used to be lightly attended has now become the most popular developers conference in the world and sold out within 2 hours this years
Here’s a look at the many banners that have decorated the halls of WWDC over the past 11 years:
Following a win by Samsung in the International Trade Court claiming that older Apple devices violate one of its patents, the ITC has issued an import ban on iPhone 4, iPhone 3, iPhone 3GS, iPad 3G and iPad 2 3G devices that run on the AT&T network.
In what might be Mountain Lion’s major last roar, Apple has released OS X 10.8.4, a minor update that fixes a few small bugs in Mountain Lion before the (presumed) WWDC debut of OS X 10.9.
At this point, the magic 8-ball is turning up “Yes” to the question whether or not Apple will announce their new streaming music service, iRadio, at next week’s WWDC keynote at a rate of almost 100%. A new report not only confirms the magic 8-ball’s whisperings, it says Apple is restructuring the iAds team to help support the new product. But don’t expect iRadio to launch at WWDC: you’ll have to wait until iOS 7 lands in September.
Yesterday, the Department of Justice published its case against Apple for allegedly conspiring with publishers to raise the price of ebooks. Now, Apple’s responded, calling the DoJ’s case “bizarre” and saying that they are twisting the words of Apple’s late co-founder, Steve Jobs.
Apple is expected to refresh its iPad lineup this fall, but its next-generation tablets may not arrive together. According to supply chain sources in Taiwan, the fifth-generation iPad will enter production as early as next month in time for a launch during the third quarter, but we might have to wait longer for a new iPad mini.
You probably already know the Macintosh Portable, Apple’s first Mac laptop released for $7,300 in 1989, which looked and weighed about as much as a small suitcase full of dark matter. No joke: you could ship an entire crate of MacBook Airs inside of one.
But can you believe that there was an even bigger, more unwieldy Mac laptop that preceded it? It wasn’t an official Cupertino joint, to be sure, but meet the Walkmac: a 1987 modded Mac SE with a working LCD screen and a battery pack.
Apple has released a new WWDC 2013 companion app for iOS, which is designed to give developers the opportunity to follow the event each day. Designed for both attendees and those who cannot make it, the app offers a WWDC schedule, the latest news, daily session videos for registered developers, and more.
Apple is expected to announce a new low-cost iPhone later this year in an effort to compete with rivals like Samsung in emerging markets. Reports have suggested that to keep costs low, the Cupertino company will give it a plastic form factor similar to that of the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS.
And now that plastic shell appears to have been leaked for the first time.
Thanks to Apple’s strict software approval process, iOS devices are generally considered some of the most secure. But you might want to be careful about where you plug them in for charging. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a modified charger capable of installing malware onto any device running Apple’s latest iOS operating system.
We’ve been hearing about Apple’s plans for a music streaming service for over a year now. Negotiations with the labels have kept Apple’s product, commonly referred to as “iRadio,” at bay. With competitors like Pandora, Spotify, Rdio, and now Google, the race is on.
Word on the street has been that a least a couple of the big labels have been holding out on Apple, but now Warner has signed on. All signs point to Apple wanting iRadio to be ready in time for an unveiling at WWDC on June 10th.
With Grokr’s predictive search capability and Siri’s natural language capability combined into a single feature could put Apple in the overall lead in the crucial area of virtual assistant technology.
Here’s why Apple needs to buy Grokr (and why I think they already did).
The Dock is one of those things that we all use on our Macs, but may not really do much more than swap out applications and use whatever Stacks were put there when we got the darn Mac.
However, if you really want to get the most out of your Mac, you might as well learn how to do a bit more with the Dock, and master your use of this oft-overlooked bit of user software. Here are four great ways to do just that.
Southern gentleman and Apple Chief Tim Cook fielded a barrage of questions at this week’s D11, the big tech conference that puts top CEOs on stage for long chats. And on this week’s CultCast, we analyze and scrutinize Mr. Cook’s thoughts and statements on an Apple television, iWatch, wearable tech like Google Glass, and just when we can all expect Apple’s next big thing.
All that and more on this week’s CultCast. Stream or download our new or past shows on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing now on iTunes, or hit play below and let the anarchy begin.
We already have a pretty good idea of what the fifth-generation iPad will look like, thanks to the many rumors and leaked parts that we’ve seen in recent months. And the latest, a purported front panel with a new design, reinforces those expectations.
Apple Worldwide Developer Relations has slapped down TransMedia CEO Donald Leka for suggesting no one cares about iOS in a press release for a new iPhone app. “Consumers really don’t care that much what platform they are on,” Leka said — but it turns out Cupertino does not agree.
Remember Merek Davis’ Mextures? They were a bunch of image files for adding textures to your iOS photos using Photoshop Touch or other layering and blending apps. Now Merek, who was so proud of these textures that he named them for himself, has made an app.
Apple’s two-step authentication process is designed to make your Apple ID more secure. When attempting to reset a password or make other kinds of account changes, a separate verification code is sent to an iOS device you own. That code is then used to verify that you are who you claim to be before you’re allowed to make any changes.
Now that security researchers have had time to dig through Apple’s implementation of two-step, some problems have surfaced. Once the login details for an Apple ID with two-step authentication enabled are compromised, there’s nothing stopping hackers from accessing iCloud data, like device backups.
Google just announced its new subscription music service – Google Play Music All Access – at Google I/O a few weeks ago. The Android app was ready to go as soon as the service was announced, but according to Google Chrome and Android Chief, Sundar Pichai, an iOS app will quickly follow.
At the D11 conference this morning, Pichai was asked about the company’s work on making their services available on other platforms, even though companies like Apple don’t write apps for Android. Pichai then announced that
The iPod touch is a much better idea than creating cheap iPhone models.
Following the launch of its new cheaper iPod touch this morning, Apple has confirmed that it has now sold more than 100 million units of the iPod touch since its introduction back in 2007. That makes it one of the Cupertino company’s most popular products to date.
Apple has this morning added a new iPod touch to its online store that does away with the rear-facing iSight camera in an effort to be cheaper. The device also has just 16GB of internal storage — half that of the regular iPod touch — but it is $70 cheaper at $229.