Apple

Customers of Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon will soon be able to receive Passbook tickets, coupons and gift cards via MMS instead of email, allowing easier installation. The announcement was made by  mobile marketing company Skycore on Market Wired. The recipient of an MMS is instantly alerted on their home screen. An MMS pass recipient simply has to tap an image to view and install it. [...] MMS is ideal because the recipient instantly knows when they’ve received it, and they don’t need to open their email client to find the pass.

Disneyland and Santa Monica Pier If you like to check out locations before you visit them, or wander down memory lane afterwards, you’ll be able to do so in quite a few new areas of California, as Apple Insider notes significantly expanded flyover coverage in the State. The new support includes San Bernardino, Riverside, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario and Moreno Valley, among others. With the additions, Maps offers nearly unbroken Flyover coverage of cities from San Bernardino to the Pacific Ocean … As with the previous expansion of the flyover feature in Paris and surrounding areas of France, the update was a silent one, so it’s possible that other areas have been added too – please let us know if you spot any. The flyover feature is supported only in iOS6. Apple has been working hard on developing its Maps product after widespread disappointment in the accuracy of the launch version.

Remember when the iPhone launched, and people complained that the non-removable battery was a “deal-breaker”? And then the very same thing happened to the MacBook in the form of the Air, and the very same people whined the same whine? Happy days indeed. Now we know better: we can indeed carry spare batteries for our iPhones, only they’re external and don’t require that we power down the phone just to swap them. And the batteries in our MacBook last way longer thanks to the fact that they are squished into every internal nook and cranny of the computer’s case instead of having to be an easy-to-remove rectangle. Not that anyone ever needed to swap a battery into a computer anyway. Well, except those dullards who would stare at a single Excel spreadsheet for the entire duration of a six-hour plane ride, and they all own PCs anyway. Which is to say, in a very roundabout way, that Eagle has made available yet another external battery pack. And this one is orange. It’s called – somewhat catchily – the ET-NP056K-OR. The key features, apart from the natty orange exterior and matching USB cable, are the dual USB ports (one 1-Amp port for iPhones and most other things, and one 2.1-Amp monster for iPads and fast-charging your iPhone) and the 5,600mAh battery. To get an idea of what that’ll do, here’re the various battery capacities of the current lineup of iDevices: iPad retina battery 11,666 mAh iPhone battery 1,440 mAh iPad mini battery 4,400 mAh Even accounting for the losses inherent in ay system like this, you should still get a full charge for your mini, and a few full charges for the iPhone. Not bad for a five-ounce widget. There’s also the amusingly-named “Bonus LED flash light,” which sounds like it was a surprise even for the designers. Available soon, for $50. Source: Eagle Tech The post These Days, Even iPhone Backup Batteries Are Fashion Accessories appeared first on Cult of Mac.Related StoriesApple Airs New TV Ad For iPhone: ‘Music Every Day’ [Video]Matchmaker Added To Tinder, A Real-Life Social Networking Introduction AppUrbanEars Boom: The All-Day, All-Directional Speaker For Your Summer AdventuresXistera iPhone 5 Multitool Does Everything. EVERYTHINGiPhone Case Stores Headphones In Giant Pocket

HTC is still planning to release a version of the HTC One with a stock installation of Android, according to a rumor, despite an official denial from the company. Sources of the rumor place an announcement of a vanilla HTC One within the next two weeks and a release sometime in the summer, with internal teams apparently already working on making it possible....

Evernote—one of the more popular note-taking apps available for iOS, Mac and the web—has just been updated with a new feature that will certainly make the app even more useful: Evernote Reminders. With Reminders, you’ll be able to enjoy three features in one: in-app and email alarms, quick note based to-do lists, and the ability to pin notes to the top your note list. Reminders are connected with Notes you created. On Mac, for example, while on a particular…Continue reading Evernote Reminders for Mac, iOS rolled out, makes Evernote app more usefulRelated posts:You write the songs with Songwriter’s Pad for iOS and MacParallels Desktop 7 for Mac and Parallels Mobile upgraded for Retina displaysThe Festive Apple 2012: Create and send Christmas cards on your Apple devices

My first Apple TV quickly established itself as an essential addition to my home media setup. I used it primarily to send music from my Mac’s iTunes library to the home theater audio system in our living room. In addition, it let me watch videos purchased or rented from the iTunes Store on the family HDTV. Over time, our use of the Apple TV has only broadened. One example: My wife invited a group of her friends over to watch a series of video interviews, obtained as free downloads from a website, but she didn’t want to make everyone huddle around her computer to view the shows. Our Apple TV came to the rescue. We imported the videos into her iTunes library, letting her display the videos on the connected television. As great as having one Apple TV has been, I’ve recently discovered the benefits of owning multiple Apple TVs, one for each of the three televisions in our home. The joy of multiple Apple TVs The most obvious advantage of multiple Apple TVs is that I have access to Apple TV’s features no matter which television or audio system I’m using. As a result, I can now listen to music from my iTunes library just about anywhere in our house. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

As a Mac user, I’ve never been a big fan of USB for storage. Keyboards, mice, sure. But a hard drive connected via USB has always been slow compared to those using Apple’s FireWire, FireWire 800, and (most recently) Thunderbolt interfaces. And booting from a USB drive on the Mac was a no-no for a long time. Times have changed, however. And thanks to USB 3.0’s availability on almost all shipping Macs (and, in the case of the Mac Pro, something you can add via a PCI card), its bootability (since late 2005—but what can I say, I can hold a grudge), its improved performance, and its relatively low price, my bias is quickly disappearing. (Though the first certified USB 3.0 consumer devices were announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2010, Macs didn’t begin shipping with USB 3.0 ports until June 2012, when new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models were released.) USB 3.0 (also known as SuperSpeed USB) has a maximum bandwidth rate of 5 gbps (gigabits per second). That translates to 640 MBps (megabytes per second)—ten times faster than USB 2.0 (aka Hi-Speed USB). By comparison, Intel’s Thunderbolt technology allows theoretical data-transfer speeds of up to 10 gbps on each of its bi-directional channels. On paper, that’s twice as fast as USB 3.0, but how fast is Thunderbolt really? Also, you’ll currently you pay quite a premium for Thunderbolt (often an extra $100 or more for a drive of the same capacity) and USB 3.0 ports offer backward compatibility with USB 2.0 devices. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Probably the biggest problem you have in your modern life is finding a place to store your earbuds when you’re not using them. Unless, of course, your life isn’t a shallow, empty parody of existence used by a gadget blogger to make a lame point. That said, tangled cables are a pain. Probably not enough of a pain for me to stick a special case to the back of my iPhone and actually use it, but I’m just plain lazy. For those of you who care, there’s the Sound Pocket, a rear shell with a small compartment on the back for your Apple EarPods. Say goodbye to a phone that easily slides into your pocket as soon as you slip on the Sound Pocket: The little cubbyhole for the earbuds not only holds your headphones but also contains a fold-out section around which you can wrap the tangle-prone cable. The whole thing is impressively bulky, and reminds me of nothing so much as putting plastic sheeting over your beautiful sofa, or leaving the protective film attached to your TV remote control for years: practical, but at the cost of eliminating all style. Let’s just call it the Linux of iPhone cases and be done with it. The Sound Pocket is available for the iPhones 4, 4S and 5, plus the latest iPod Touch, and will cost you $35 whichever one you choose. Neck-beard trimmer not included. Source: Sound Pockets The post iPhone Case Stores Headphones In Giant Pocket appeared first on Cult of Mac.Related StoriesBlup: A Minimalistic Puzzle Game From The Makers Of Whale TrailApple Airs New TV Ad For iPhone: ‘Music Every Day’ [Video]Matchmaker Added To Tinder, A Real-Life Social Networking Introduction AppUrbanEars Boom: The All-Day, All-Directional Speaker For Your Summer AdventuresXistera iPhone 5 Multitool Does Everything. EVERYTHING

UltimateEars Boom is yet another wireless Bluetooth speaker, a category that has gone from a mere sprinkling of spores on the petri dish of consumer gadgets to a veritable mushroom field of musical materiel. However, as is now necessary in this crowded corner of consumerism, there’s a twist: This speaker will annoy everyone equally, wherever they may be. The headline features are the 360? sound field of the speaker, which means that nobody will be left out of the “party,” and the 15-hour battery life, which will let you keep going long after the adults have fallen into a post-apoplectic coma, their furious frothing finally exhausted. The other neat trick is portability. This speaker can be hung from a bag or a belt, or even slid into the bottle cage on your bike. This last trick is truly great, as it will let cyclists terrorize pedestrians even more effectively than before, when the only weapons were excessive bell use or actual, honest-to-god collisions. Want one? You can totally just go and buy one right now, for the price of One Jawbone Jambox, or JJ$1.00, aka US$200. Source: UrbanEars The post UrbanEars Boom: The All-Day, All-Directional Speaker For Your Summer Adventures appeared first on Cult of Mac.Related StoriesMicrosoft Lies About Windows 8 Tablet Screen Size To Try And Diss The iPadBlup: A Minimalistic Puzzle Game From The Makers Of Whale TrailApple Airs New TV Ad For iPhone: ‘Music Every Day’ [Video]Matchmaker Added To Tinder, A Real-Life Social Networking Introduction AppXistera iPhone 5 Multitool Does Everything. EVERYTHING

The obvious thing to say about the XiStera is to call it the "“Swiss Army Knife” of iPhone 5 accessories. Leaving aside for a second the fact that, if all the Swiss Army is bringing to the fight is that little knife, it’s no wonder it refuses to play in any wars, let’s make a better analogy for the Xistera. It’s like a Glif crossed with a Pulltaps corkscrew. The Xistera Really is impressively utilitarian. It works as a wrap for headphones, a stand for the iPhone, a magnetic mount for those annoying magnetic lenses, a keychain, a tripod adapter, an accessory cold-shoe (for lights and mics) and – yes – a bottle opener. It’s a Kickstarter project, but as it was funded in like five minutes we should be fairly confident that it’ll be made available. And you can even buy this ultimate accessory with its own accessories: currently the XiStera can be had for $35 along with wide-angle, macro and fisheye lenses. Source: Kickstarter The post Xistera iPhone 5 Multitool Does Everything. EVERYTHING appeared first on Cult of Mac.Related StoriesMicrosoft Lies About Windows 8 Tablet Screen Size To Try And Diss The iPadBlup: A Minimalistic Puzzle Game From The Makers Of Whale TrailApple Airs New TV Ad For iPhone: ‘Music Every Day’ [Video]Matchmaker Added To Tinder, A Real-Life Social Networking Introduction AppUrbanEars Boom: The All-Day, All-Directional Speaker For Your Summer Adventures