Yesterday we posted a tutorial on how to turn your iOS devices into AirPlay-compatible speakers using a jailbreak hack that involves copying two files to iOS’ filesystem. 24 hours into using it, I have to admit this has already radically changed the way I think of AirPlay – Apple’s streaming functionality for audio and video content introduced in iOS 4.2.
This is a taste of the AirPlay that’s going to be, and it looks a lot like an integrated model, all over again. Read more
There’s one thing I’ve always wanted to do on my iPhone, but couldn’t: easily create and manage photo albums on the device without having to sync with the desktop. I wanted to be able to split photos in different albums, say one for wallpapers and one for my dog’s pictures.
Now, thanks to a tweak available in Cydia known as PhotoAlbums+, I can. Read more
[MacStories Interviews is a new series of email interviews and conversations with with well-known developers, bloggers, journalists, geeks. You can check out more MacStories interviews here.]
Please welcome MG Siegler, writer at TechCrunch. You can follow him on Twitter as @parislemon.
- Tell me a little about yourself: who are you, what do you do, etc…?
I’m MG Siegler, a technology writer for TechCrunch. Before that, I was at VentureBeat. Before that, I worked in web development. And before that, believe it or not, I worked in Hollywood.
I love my job as it allows me to merge the two things I’m most passionate about: technology and writing.
- What’s your current setup?
I currently have 6 Macs — a little extreme, I know. But my urge to have the latest and greatest forces me to upgrade when something new comes along, and other machines become backups or media centers. Currently, I mainly use my i7 iMac (late 2009) and a new 13-inch MacBook Air. I absolutely love the latter. I’m even thinking about getting an 11-inch as well. It has replaced my (early 2010) i7 MacBook Pro,
When I’m on the go, I always have the iPhone 4 with me. And I often bring the iPad as well. I also have a ridiculous number of iPods, which mainly don’t get used anymore, as the iPhone is my source of all music. Read more
Everyone goes shopping on Black Friday (well, unless you prefer to check out online deals), and Apple Stores are no exception to this trend. With some pretty decent discounts set up for the day after Thanksgiving, we knew Apple was going to sell a whole bunch of iPads and new MacBook Airs on that day – but we may have the actual numbers here.
Fortune is reporting that, according to a report from Gene Munster’s team at Piper Jaffray, Apple sold approximately 8.8 iPad units per hour on Black Friday and 8.2 Mac units per hour. A rough estimate of 8.8 iPads sold per hour across 236 US stores in a 12 hours timeframe leads us to 25.000 iPads sold on Black Friday.
Most notable in our observations,” he writes, “we noticed that the iPad is gaining traction (driven by lower price vs. the Mac) among demographics in which the Mac has historically not been successful. The bottom line is that Apple’s addressable market is expanding with the iPad.
Munster also states the iPad is “becoming the Mac of the masses”. An interesting statement looking forward.
According to several reports surfaced on iSpazio, fscklog and Apple’s discussion boards, hundreds of iPhone, iPod Touch and Mac users received random FaceTime calls from themselves or one of their contacts in Address Book on Saturday. Most specifically, it appears that a bug triggered these FaceTime calls to go out at 6:30 PM PST, 9:30 PM EST, 2:30 AM GMT and 3:30 AM GMT +1 on Saturday, November 27th (United States) and Sunday, November 28th (Europe).
Basing on the reports from iSpazio and Apple’s forums, it seems like these random and “fake” calls (not initiated by users, coming randomly from iPhone numbers and email addresses associated to FaceTime on iPod Touches and Macs) happened on devices running iOS 4.2.1 and iOS 4.1 (both regular and jailbroken devices). FaceTime for Mac, on the other hand, is currently in beta and available for download on Apple’s website. Read more
Of all the cool mods and hacks for Apple TV 2nd gen and AirPlay we’ve been covering in the past weeks, this one’s for Cupertino’s little black box has to be the most promising one.
Two weeks ago a video of aTV Flash, developed by Fire Core, made the rounds as it appeared like full-featured web browsing with Last.fm integration was coming to jailbroken Apple TVs. Development on the suite has been proceeding steadily, and a few days ago a new video of the tweak in action surfaced showing support for HTML5 video inside Fire Core’s browser – all played smoothly by the Apple TV.
As wrote by the developers, some parts of the app like Last.fm integration and the installer are ready for beta, but the release of iOS 4.1 for Apple TV and support for additional video codecs are turning out to be more difficult tasks to accomplish. In the meantime, check out the demo video below, and get ready for aTV Flash to make your Apple TV a lot more useful in the upcoming weeks. [via 9to5Mac] Read more
As if there weren’t enough reasons to visit Amsterdam, you’ll be able to check out Apple’s new Store if you go to the city next year. According to a report from OneMoreThing, city authorities have granted Apple authorization to open the retail store in the center of Amsterdam, at Leidseplein, in the same building of Apple Benelux offices. Read more
As expected, a few hours ago Apple posted the official Cyber Monday deals in the U.S. Apple online store. The offers are not available in the UK store or other international store.apple.com.
The Cyber Monday deals allow you to save some good bucks on a variety of Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod accessories, like headphones, speaker docks, cases, bangs and stands. The sale, for example, includes the popular TwelveSouth Compass Stand for iPad and the Beats by Dr. Dre Beatbox. You can find discounts from $5 to $40.
The Cyber Monday sale is available here.
The key point:
