iLounge

Google+ for iOS adds Instant Upload

How do you turn this off and delete pic up load. I dont want this on my phone?

Posted by Christina on February 17, 2013 at 3:50 PM (PST)

Cook talks up growth, potential of iPad

“If we don’t cannibalize, someone else will,”

And that right there sums up why I feel better about Cook than I ever did about Jobs.

Posted by Code Monkey in Midstate New York on February 16, 2013 at 12:05 PM (PST)

Apple debuts 0.5 m Lightning to USB Cable, tweaks In-Ear Headphones

So Apple has decided to use half the material, charge just as much, even though their design is so weak I’ve already experienced a complete cable failure in around 3 months time? Genius indeed.

The best deal seems to be Amazon’s own brand lightning cables ($14 or the 1 meter length) & USB extension cables ($5 for another meter, $6 for an added 3 meters). Get any length you need with much better build quality than Apple’s. I purchased a number of Apple cables initially, but as they inevitably fail, particularly if Apple plans on making them even worse value, I will be moving over to Amazon’s better cables.

Posted by Code Monkey in Midstate New York on February 15, 2013 at 2:36 PM (PST)

Apps: Chihuly, Little Inferno, Mailbox + Repulze

We’ve been discussing app ratings internally for quite some time, and came to the conclusion that frequent app updates, changes in pricing, and releases of buggy-but-likely-to-be-fixed initial versions really undercuts the value of any point-in-time rating. Something that’s overpriced and crashy on day one can be completely fixed 48 hours later, while something that’s really good on day one can be wrecked by going freemium or ad-supported. So we wanted to find a good balance of covering important new releases efficiently and realistically.

Posted by Jeremy Horwitz in East Amherst, NY, USA on February 13, 2013 at 7:11 AM (PST)

Apps: Chihuly, Little Inferno, Mailbox + Repulze

So what’s happened to the letter ratings that used to be given to Apps and Games?

Posted by Matt Spinaze on February 12, 2013 at 4:13 PM (PST)

At Goldman Q&A, Apple CEO Cook attacks specsmanship

@1: Heh. The local Genius bar is constantly booked, if you don’t make an appointment, you’re looking at 90-120 minutes minimum before the next walk in, and that’s during “off hours”. If you walk in on a weekend they probably just laugh.

I do love the relative painlessness of Apple’s customer service if you follow protocol, but in my nearly 10 years of using iDevices, I’ve had a seemingly high number of product replacements under warranty (5 out of 12 swapped for one failure or another). Anecdotal, just one guy, so maybe the aggregate statistics are better, but, as usual, it appears the PR speak is divorced from the reality of their penny pinching, bottom line focused design and delivery.

Posted by Code Monkey in Midstate New York on February 12, 2013 at 9:39 AM (PST)

At Goldman Q&A, Apple CEO Cook attacks specsmanship

“...for Apple, a great experience and great products were the goal, “the only religion that we have.””

Hmmm, somehow think that the several people who were waiting at the altar of the Genius Bar with me, all with defective/faulty MacBooks/MacBook Pros, were not feeling the “great experience” or the “great products”.
Never mind, I get to go back for a third time to prostrate myself at the foot of the great Apple…

“The only thing we’ll never do is make a crappy product.”

ORLY…...

Posted by Bob Levens in UK on February 12, 2013 at 9:08 AM (PST)

Apple to stream audio from CEO Cook's presentation

Audio is ringing. Needs better gain structure or feedback cancellation.

Posted by Thom on February 12, 2013 at 7:41 AM (PST)

Apple patents 4th-gen iPod, Newsstand

I’m sure receiving the patent in 2013 for a device that hasn’t been manufactured since 2005 and who’s only direct descendant doesn’t even get mentioned in any Apple PR is going to be of great use to them :D

And good luck defending the patent for the newsstand app’s icon for what, in essence, is a glorified RSS reader, and looks like a traditional newsstand. When companies receive patents like this, I have to wonder if maybe some daily drug and alcohol testing isn’t in order at the patent office: “Yeah, we have an app that aggregates all of a person’s digital periodical subscriptions into one place, a digital newsstand if you, and we’d like a patent on the app’s icon, it’s, wait for it… a NEWSSTAND!!!” “Oh, sure, that’s definitely original, approved”

I’m just going to assume the patent clerk had no idea what skeuomorphic meant and decided they must be missing something in the application beyond the “innovation” of icon badges that looked like magazines and newspapers.

Posted by Code Monkey in Midstate New York on February 12, 2013 at 7:33 AM (PST)

Belkin to build LEGO cases for iPhone, iPod

No one show this press release to my son or I know what else I’ll be buying

Posted by Code Monkey in Midstate New York on February 11, 2013 at 11:22 AM (PST)

Article details messy Beats by Dre-Monster split

That is a good read on Gizmodo!  Oh the irony here!  One guy on a forum put it very nicely in “Predatory snake-oil salesman gets stiffed by guy who engineered some of the worst records ever!”.  I really have no sympathy for Monster Cable.  This is the same outfit that faked test results, tried to sue other businesses/people that used the work “Monster” in their business or product name, threatened to sue other businesses in bogus patent claims (BlueJean Cables comes to mind), and sells overpriced cables with dubious claims.  I’ve actually checked out some of these Beats headphones, and frankly, I am not the least bit impressed.  I found I would rather much get headphones from actual, respectable companies that actually know sounds, such as Sennheiser, Klipsch, Grado, and so forth.  I seriously wonder what a bunch of rap “artists” would now about good sound.  We are talking about a “music” genre that, personally, I don’t find to be very musical.  Just throw down some beats with rhymes.  Where is the actual “music” in that?  I will admit that I am somewhat biased in my opinion in that I absolutely LOATHE rap and hip-hop.  Still from somebody that is pretty much on the outside looking in, I find those Beats headphones (like much of the whole “hip-hop” scene) to be all looks and no substance.  So yeah, I actually got a kick out of reading that.  It is not like anybody actually lost money here, just Monster did not do a good job to protect themselves better and lost out what could have been an even bigger payout.

Posted by SkiBumMSP on February 8, 2013 at 4:21 PM (PST)

Article details messy Beats by Dre-Monster split

Great article by Gizmodo.  I almost feel bad for Monster but I find it hard to find sympathy for millionaire’s arguing over money.  At the end of the day it’s a lesson learned by Monster and a cautionary tale for business people everywhere…

Posted by Jinkazama on February 7, 2013 at 5:01 PM (PST)

Report: Apple supplier working on mini Retina display

Well the good news is that AUO appears to be on the IGZO bandwagon, so the hope that the new mini retina display wouldn’t result in the same huge increase in power consumption and thus battery size, weight and thickness as the iPad 3/4 is still alive.  Hopefully Apple will follow the same thread with an update to the full size iPad that brings the same reduced power requirements, weight, thickness this fall as well.

Posted by Fanfoot on February 5, 2013 at 10:38 PM (PST)

Satechi debuts Smart LED Desk Lamp

Cool looking lamp.  Is that the Lumiy Lightblade 1500

Posted by Trios on February 5, 2013 at 1:44 AM (PST)

Report: iOS bugs, policies hurting users, developers?

Developer not going on Record about issues with Apple?

What issues? Please give some examples!

Posted by Alex on February 4, 2013 at 3:09 PM (PST)

Report: iOS bugs, policies hurting users, developers?

I don’t see this as anything new. We’ve been seeing recurring and unfixed bugs in iOS for as long as I’ve been paying any attention. For example, the “battery drain” problem that’s new to iOS 6 according to the above linked article… uh, yeah, about that, I’ve read about this same issue going back to probably the first iPhone and iPhone OS version. Apple has *routinely* screwed up optimizing basic things like this all along. Phantom data usage is a similarly recurring issue between iOS versions. Smartlist updating was broken between iOS 3.0 to iOS 3.1 and *never* fixed. About the only new bug under iOS I can think of is if you try to view the purchased apps on a 5G touch from the app store app, it crashes 100% of the time, has since the 5G touch shipped.

Apple makes better than average hardware, but they are not exactly perfectionist about their software, never have been, and while I hate it as much as anyone, it certainly doesn’t seem to be hurting them, which is why they keep on being so careless.

Posted by Code Monkey in Midstate New York on February 4, 2013 at 2:18 PM (PST)

Satechi debuts Smart LED Desk Lamp

This would look great on my desk!

Posted by Linsday on February 4, 2013 at 10:13 AM (PST)

iOS 4.1 for iPhone, iPod touch now available

When I updated my Ipod something went terribly wrong. Now it’s turning on and when it gets to the apple pic then it turns off. Does anyone know how to fix it? It’s been like that for almost a week!

Posted by Hannah on February 3, 2013 at 5:22 AM (PST)

Netflix streaming issues persist on Apple TV

I have the same recurring problem in the UK which seems to be duplicated on 3 Apple TVs running Netflix app in 2 different locations both on 2 Hi Speed connections, one in central London with the BT cabinet by the front door on a BT “Infinity” Op Fibre connection. Also the same results via wired LAN or Wireless connection of ATV.
I experience a ‘drift’ of the sound sync from about 0.5 sec at start of stream, developing into much greater lag of 1-1.5 sec eventually leading to breakdown of video stream entirely. I have been seeing the same results for several months, having gone through several iterations of ATV software updates.
We can run HD video smoothly on all ATVs, even on slowest connection on iTunes for example. The problem only occurs with the Netflix app and service.
It feels like a server delivery issue IMO, possibly linked to an issue within the app itself. Seems to be pretty clearly a Netflix issue, worldwide, from what I’m reading from others. Other services seem smooth.
Seems like this is a well identified issue with Netflix.

Posted by Jo David on February 2, 2013 at 1:40 AM (PST)

iPad 4th-gen, mini add LTE carriers, 3rd-gen ignored

no support for a 1 year old product.. gotta love Apple… NOT

Posted by menotu on February 1, 2013 at 6:21 AM (PST)

Report: Apple accused of bribing Russian officials

I guess the Russian National Anti-Corruption Committee was contacted by somebody who did not get any bribes…

Posted by ikl on January 31, 2013 at 9:32 PM (PST)

Report: Apple accused of bribing Russian officials

Russian officials?  Accepting bribes?  Unheard of!

Without bribes, business doesn’t get done in Russia.

Posted by Carl on January 31, 2013 at 7:57 AM (PST)

Staples to sell Apple products?

Staples in Canada has been an official Apple supplier for the last few years. This is very old news to Canadians. Not sure why US Staples doesnt carry Apple like they do here…odd.

Posted by Joey Hoddinott on January 31, 2013 at 3:46 AM (PST)

Satechi debuts Smart LED Desk Lamp

Just letting you know that the $100 sale price is only for a limited time. Thanks for the review!

Posted by Satechi on January 30, 2013 at 3:13 PM (PST)

Apple announces 128GB fourth-gen iPad

It should have been released a year after they released iPods and iPads with a 64GB memory capacity. That kind of memory was available back then FOR A REASONABLE PRICE. Instead, we had Apple trying to tell us that we didn’t need that much memory and that 64GB was good enough for another few years. I always said they should just keep their opinions to themselves, shut up, and make 128GB iPod and iPad whether they felt we needed it or not.

Posted by Andy on January 30, 2013 at 12:46 AM (PST)