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Google+ for iOS: Now Available For iPad and iPod touch

Looking to use the official Google+ app on your iPad or iPod touch? There’s a Google+ update in the App Store waiting for your geeky fingers to download the app on your tablet or smart-mp3 player. While Google+ doesn’t have an iPad specific version (you’re looking forward to 2x mode), you can now use it on devices outside of the iPhone (or your Android smartphone).

Google is also giving you additional control for their huddle feature via the app, as well as aggregated circle add notifications, stability improvements, and bug fixes.

You can download the latest Google+ update here.

[via The Next Web]

Chinese Customs Crack Down on Smugglers Moving iPads By Crossbow and Pulleys

Yes, you did read that headline correctly. Smugglers moving Apple products from Hong Kong to mainland China were caught doing so via a clever pulley system that had iPhones and iPads being hoisted over the border with a large tote bag, hook, and a crossbow that was used to initially get the 300 meter cable over the Sha Tau Kok river. In an operation consisting of six smugglers, iPads and iPhones could be transferred across the river in about 2 minutes under the cover of darkness, where products were lifted up to the 21st floor of a residential block in Shenzhen. After a surveillance operation, Chinese customs moved in arrested the six smugglers, recovering 50 iPhones and 50 iPad 2s in the process worth 300,000 yuan (around $47,000).

Smugglers attempting to smuggle electronics into China hope to rake in profits — devices sold in China are much more expensive than devices sold in Hong Kong. Smugglers can purchase electronics in Hong Kong (whom have some of the cheapest prices in the world) and resell devices in the mainland, where they can profit off of the higher prices. Smugglers simply can’t move electronics across the border since as China requires a 20% property tax for all electronic devices brought into the country. Thus, we end up with a situation like this — smugglers get creative in an attempt to make a quick buck selling devices back home.

As for the high-wire act, there’s a video report to go with it, showing off the equipment the smugglers used to move items between the border which we’ve posted after the break.

[via WSJ, (image via) M.I.C. Gadget]

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Jailbroken Apple TV Sees Its First HTML5 Web Game

There’s quite a few of you who would love to load up your Apple TV with iOS apps and games (effectively turning the Apple TV into a mini-console), but we’ve settled for jailbreaks in the meantime in order to get the most out of the pocketable media-center. The latest in jailbreaking news comes from appletvblack, whom demonstrate that a simple game of blackjack can be played on the Apple TV through Couch Surfer (a web browser for the big screen). The game is simple, but demonstrates that the Apple TV can access and play media that Apple doesn’t otherwise allow. The Apple TV, currently a “hobby” to be used in conjunction with your existing home television equipment, has the potential to be as functional as an iPhone if Apple opens the platform up to apps. In the meantime, we’ve posted a video after the break that shows off the game of blackjack and just how functional HTML5 based apps for the Apple TV can be.

[appletvblack via Redmond Pie, TechCrunch]

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Fullscreen Safari Trick→

Fullscreen Safari Trick

When using Safari in Lion’s Full-Screen mode, you can grab the edges of the browser and drag inward to reduce the width, making fluid websites easier to read on wide monitors, while keeping a nice clutter free view.

For as much as I’ve used Safari in Full-Screen mode on the Mac, I’ve never noticed that the cursor changes at the left and right edges of the display to signify that you can resize the webpage. It’s a neat effect, and it almost looks a little 37signals-ish when you have a webpage resized to show the light linen in the background. What’s nice is that the width will remain as you navigate the web — there’s no need to resize per webpage, although the new width isn’t shared between tabs. Hat tip to The Brooks Review for pointing out this clever trick from Finer Things in Mac.

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Apple Introduces $999 iMac For Educational Institutions

We reported a few hours ago on reports that Apple was set to launch a new iMac model for educational institutions later this month for a sub-$1000 price. Surprisingly we only needed to wait a few more hours for this new model as it turns out that Apple has decided to launch this new educational iMac today — meaning that for educational institutions they can purchase this new iMac model now.

This new iMac model is available for $999 and is directly targeted at educational institutions — individuals are not able to purchase this model. The specifications of this new iMac model are in line with what was stated in the 9to5 Mac report this morning with a 3.1GHz Core i3 processor, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB of hard drive storage and an AMD HD 6750 with 512 MB. This knowledge base article contains all the specifications of this new iMac but interestingly this model (which is dubbed a ‘Late 2011’ iMac) does not have Thunderbolt, that makes this iMac the first new Mac from Apple in 2011 that doesn’t support Thunderbolt.

  • 3.1GHz Intel Core i3 Dual-Core
  • 21.5-inch LCD
  • AMD Radeon HD 6750 with 256 MB
  • 2GB RAM
  • 250GB Hard Drive
  • SuperDrive
  • OS X Lion

Updated to include link to specifications page.

[Via MacRumors]

UK Carrier Orange Teams Up With Apple, Offers Customers 1 Free Movie Rental Per Week

European mobile carrier Orange today launched a new “Film To Go” service in the UK which now allows its customers to rent one free movie per week from the iTunes Movie store. Each week a new movie will be available for Orange customers and will be downloadable on the Thursday - this week the movie is ‘My Blueberry Nights’ and in the following weeks ‘The Wrestler’, ‘The Ghost’ and ‘Che: Part One’ will be offered.

To get the free movie rental, Orange customers in the UK will need to send a text message with “FILMTOGO” (no quotes) to 85060 and they will receive a redemption code — beware however that whilst renting the movie is free, this text message will cost 35 pence. The received code is a standard redemption code for iTunes and once entered will allow Orange customers to download the movie (although this can only occur on the Thursday), once downloaded the rental abides by the standard restrictions where it is available for 30 days but once started must be completed within 48 hours before it expires.

[Via The Next Web]

Apple Set To Introduce Education-Focused iMac Model For Less Than $1000?

Apple may be preparing to launch an education-focused iMac later this month according to a report in 9to5 Mac today. The “new” iMac would be less powerful than the current generation of iMacs available to consumers but would be priced at a lower level that is geared towards volume and educational customers.

9to5 Mac claims that this ‘education’ iMac will include a previous generation 3.1GHz dual core processor, 2 GB of RAM, 250 GB of hard drive storage and an AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics processor with 256 MB dedicated memory — the article doesn’t rule in or rule out the inclusion of a Thunderbolt port. No price is attributed to this machine in the article but they suspect it would be sub-$1000 and cite the example of a previous education-focused iMac being sold for $899 and a similar refurbished model selling for $929 now.

This ‘education’ iMac is expected to silently launch on August 16th, but there is potential for that date to change if Apple wishes — there isn’t any real rush to get this product out as soon as possible. Whilst this rumoured new iMac model is a bit odd and out of the blue, the specificity that 9to5 Mac has in terms of specifications (despite the lack of a concrete price) suggests that it is likely that this is indeed a product about to launch.

[Via 9to5 Mac]

MobileMe to iCloud Transition Goes Live for Developers

As first noted by 9to5mac, Apple is now allowing developers with access to the iOS 5 beta or OS X Lion 10.7.2 preview to migrate their existing MobileMe accounts to iCloud. A MobileMe account needs to be associated with a development device to be correctly transitioned to iCloud for now – once an account is eligible, the migration process can be initiated from OS X Lion (from the MobileMe control panel) or by directly visiting me.com/move.

As Apple previously detailed in its MobileMe to iCloud Transition Q&A, some functionalities of MobileMe won’t transfer over to iCloud. This includes MobileMe Gallery, iDisk and iWeb publishing, which, however, will still be accessible until June 30, 2012, even after moving to iCloud. Another feature that iCloud won’t include is the ability of syncing several Mac OS X items like Dashboard widgets, Preferences, and Mail Rules.

Apple’s web interface for the transition is very straightforward and guides you through the process of moving your MobileMe account to iCloud by detailing each step with an explanation, and links pointing to support articles.

Once upgraded, an already configured MobileMe account on iOS or OS X will need to manually “confirmed” before completely moving to iCloud. If the account isn’t already configured, you’ll just need to log in as a new iCloud account and choose which content you’d like to keep stored on Apple’s servers.

The process is now exclusive to developers and there’s the chance Apple will tweak the interface/steps required before the public release of iCloud. However, the information available today falls in line with what Apple revealed months ago about the transition. Furthermore, it appears MobileMe accounts will be automatically upgraded to a paid 20 GB plan for free until June 30, 2012, (with pricing depending on where you live, and the 20 GBs are in addition to the 5 GBs iCloud already gives you for free) although there are no subscription management options available yet to developers on iCloud.com. Read more

13-inch MacBook Air Review

The new MacBook Air is the best Mac I’ve ever owned. This machine is shaping the future of OS X, both as an operating system and a bridge between iOS and the desktop.

In October 2008, I bought my first Mac. I had been a Windows PC user for seven years, and I was accustomed to using a PC at home for my browsing and writing needs, and at work – where my boss demanded we used PCs as he said they were more “reliable” and “fast”. After months of reading and peeking through Apple’s FAQ pages and video tutorials, I decided to buy a MacBook Pro. It was a 15-inch Unibody model with glossy screen, 4 GB of RAM, multi-touch trackpad, and Core 2 Duo processor. Back then, it was my first Mac but also the best computer I ever had. The moment I took it out of the box – and I was immediately impressed by Apple’s attention to detail in packaging and overall presentation – I knew that machine was going to change the way I “did work” on a computer. And it did. A few months later my boss fired me, and I started MacStories.

That MacBook Pro has been with me until last week.

Last year, I bought an iMac. Being the kind of Mac user that travels back and forth every day between his office (where I spend most of my day writing and managing the site) and his home, I was tired of being constantly forced to pack my MacBook Pro inside a bag, carry it around, gently place it on the passenger seat of my car, and pray that the hard drive wouldn’t die because of the terrible roads we have here in Viterbo. In spite of the fact that the MacBook Pro was the best computer I ever had, I slowly came to a point where I couldn’t stand carrying it around anymore. I decided to buy an iMac and make it my “home computer” so that I could offload media on it, backup documents, and do all those other things you’re supposed to do on “a home computer”. I bought a 21.5-inch model – again with a glossy screen – as I thought I wouldn’t ever need anything bigger than that. I was right. I’m happy with my purchase – the iMac is the finest piece of desktop hardware Apple has come up with in the past decade. Sure, my 2009 iMac doesn’t feature a Thunderbolt port and won’t get the performance boost of a Sandy Bridge-enabled machine, but it’s a trusted companion that I plan to keep for at least the next two years (that is, unless something really bad happens to the hardware, or Apple comes out with a desktop computer so revolutionary that it’ll be impossible to say no and don’t buy it).

For me, an iMac is the perfect desktop computer. It sits there, it makes my desk more elegant and classy than it could ever be, and more importantly it never failed me.

But I still had a problem with the MacBook Pro being a clumsy machine I didn’t want to carry around with me all the time. Read more