Apple

Old School Phones Can Still Teach Us a Thing About Cable Management

If you haven’t replaced your plethora of old Apple dock connector cables with fancy new Lightning cords, you might want to consider Sanwa’s alternative before you do. Even though cellphones have all but replaced old-school phones with tethered handsets, those ‘outdated’ models can apparently still teach us something about keeping cords tidy. Namely that those…

AirDrop File Sharing: The Most Persistant iOS Rumor Has Returned

In 2011, Apple introduced AirDrop for OS X Lion, a feature that makes sharing a file between two Macs as easy as dragging and dropping it. Two and a half years later, we’re still waiting to see it on iOS. Could we finally get peer-to-peer iPhone and iPad sharing in iOS 7? https://gizmodo.com/os-x-lion-will-have-a-swift-new-file-sharing-feature-a-5769287 A report…

Your iPhone Can Be Hacked With a Modified Charger

It might pay to be more careful about where you juice up your phone—because a team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have put together a prototype charger capable of installing malware onto an iPhone. The research, which is to be presented at the Black Hat security conference in late July and was…

Report: Apple Is Finally Sealing Deals For Its Internet Radio

The New York Times is reporting that Apple’s much-rumored music streaming service may soon be ready—even in time for next week’s WWDC—thanks to the company finally signing contracts with major music labels. https://gizmodo.com/bloomberg-apples-pandora-killing-internet-radio-servic-5954986 The report suggests that Apple signed a deal with the Warner Music Group over the weekend for both recorded music rights and…

How Big Would an iPhone Be If You Combined All the iPhones Ever Sold

Very, very big. Like way bigger than the new World Trade Center big. Like almost double the world’s tallest tower big. If you combined all the iPhones ever sold into a single gigantic monolith of a phone, it’d be 5,059 feet tall and 2,846 feet across. Ridiculous! In Animal’s very silly series Stupid Calculations, Josh…

Musyc, iHeart Locket, and More

Maybe it’s the warm weather or maybe it’s just the fact that we’re finally out of winter hibernation, but this week’s iPad apps are all about creativity on your terms. Whether it’s a song in your heart, in your fingers, of one you just want to keep all to yourself, we’ve got you covered. Musyc:…

Postcards, Tall Chess, Analog, and More

It may have been a (thankfully) short week, but the app gears were turning just as hard as ever. So relive the glory days of the long weekend of yore, and kick back with a bundle of apps that aim to make your life just a little bit easier. Or at the very least, a…

Postcards: A Much More Pleasant Way to Browse Tumblr

The Tumblr app is, admittedly, a wonderfully designed one. And there’s no denying it has more functionality than something like Postcards. But for those who use Tumblr more as a means of finding articles to read instead zipping through streams of GIFs, this might be exactly what you’re looking for. What does it do? Turns…

Though already accessible via web on iOS, Google Play All Access should officially be hitting iOS in less than a month.

Do you like free money? Well, it’s your lucky day—because for today only, you can get yourself a $50 iTunes gift card for a mere $40. Go get ’em, tiger. [Ebay via 9to5Toys]

Apple’s New Budget 16GB iPod Touch: 4-inch Retina Screen, $230

Apple has just quietly launched a budget-friendly new iPod touch: a 16GB model, with a 4-inch Retina display and a price tag of $230. Replacing the last-gen 3.5-inch version, which hung around Apple’s store for a while, the new budget offering loses some of the more advanced features found on the more expensive models—such as…

Jamstar Acoustics: A Guitar Learning App That Won’t Hold You Back

Learn-to-play-guitar apps are a dime a dozen, and to be honest, most of them aren’t worth the data they take to download. Light up fretboards are great—until you try to move over to a real, non-illuminated guitar. JamStar, though, works more like a real live, actual guitar teacher would to help you get better on…

Ive’s Influence: Can a Great Product Designer Also Design Great UI?

With iOS 7 a little over a week away, it’s worth taking stock of the fact that this is Jonathan Ive’s first WWDC as Apple’s Head of Human Interface (HI). But what does it mean for an industrial designer—someone who works with atoms in three dimensions—to be put in charge of a team that works…

You Can Get 1Password For 50 Percent Off Right Now

If you’re usually too cheap for security, maybe this will be enough to tempt you: 1password is offering 50 percent of its apps for iOS and OS X. 1password’s pretty much the gold standard in terms of rock-solid digital security. The app act as a vault for your digital credentials—site log-ins, bank details, all that…

Over 153,000 iPhone users who were denied warranty coverage for water damage are in for a payout: Apple was just forced to officially settle a case which will see them pay out $53 million to those whose iPhone, iPhone 3G, or iPhone 3GS was affected.

Tim Cook on iOS 7, Jony Ive, Google Glass and Opening Apple Up

Confirming what we’ve already heard about iOS 7, Tim Cook just told Walt Mossberg, Kara Swisher and the rest of the tech world that Jony Ive has been “really key” to iOS 7. Cook also had a few choice words about Google Glass and other topics. https://gizmodo.com/bloomberg-jony-ive-ios-7-changes-are-so-major-theyre-486198913 Cook is currently doing his annual walk around…

This Proximity-Sensitive Volume Adjuster Needs to Exist

Apple has just scored a patent with the the US Patent and Trademark Office that’s one of the most simple yet ingenious ideas we’ve seen in a while: a proximity-sensitive volume adjuster on a phone. The patent, “Adjustment of acoustic properties based on proximity detection”, describes how a number of phone sensors could be used…

A Pendant-Locked Secret Diary For a Generation Raised on Tablets

Long gone are the days when kids would keep their innermost thoughts and secrets hidden away in a diary. For the most part they’re happy to share everything on Facebook and Twitter these days, and in the rare event they’d actually want to keep something secret, there’s now an iPad app that protects their private…

The iPad Cleverly Detects This Connected Picture Book’s Page Turns

The arrival of the iPad had many predicting the device would wipe out books, magazine, and newspapers once and for all. But their doomsday predictions were a little premature, and as the folks at engageLab demonstrate with this fantastic conceptual app, tablets and books can live in perfect harmony. The Bridging Book isn’t commercially available,…

Receiving A Gold Plated iPad At Hotel Check-In Is Normal, Right?

You know the drill. You pull up to a Super 8 Motel with the vacancy light on, you argue with the attendent about getting a room away from the ice machine, you whip out your AAA card for extra savings and then you take the 24-karat gold-plated iPad the attendant hands you and head off…