Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad , iPhone , iPod touch , iDevice Accessories , Reviews Provides: iDevice cradle Developer: Just mobile Minimum Requirements: iDevice Price: $49.99 Availability: Now JustMobile is one of those companies that continues to think a little differently from the rest of the industry. This time, I’m taking a look at their new Lounge iDevice car cradle, which doesn’t attach to your windshield like you’d expect it to. Nah, instead, it sits on your dash, which might just make more sense anyway. There’s no suction cup to attach to your windshield. There’s no attempt at amplifying the sound of your iPhone whatsoever. There are no GPS enhancements, and there isn’t even a good place to put a USB cable to charge your iPhone while the GPS is killing your battery. I know this sounds awful, but there are a lot of things to like about Just Mobile’s Lounge car cradle. Take, for instance, that it doesn’t attach to your windshield.  Some will hate this, while others will love it.  Depending on your vehicle, the windshield might not be the optimal placement of your iPhone for guidance.  If that’s the case for you, then your dashboard might be a lot better.  This cradle comes with a circle of metal that semi-perminently attaches to your dashboard (with a 3M adhesive strip).  This helps the already grippy cradle to stay in place, but, in practice, it’s not really necessary.  I never attached the circle and I didn’t have any issues with the cradle moving whatsoever.  Actually, it’s been sitting in the same place for two weeks while I’ve driven around daily.  That just goes to show you that this thing is heavy enough and grippy enough to stay put.  But secondarily, this cradle is just as at home in the car as it is on your desk since it doesn’t have that unsightly suction cup that belongs nowhere in my house. Another reason to like this cradle is that you likely won’t have to take off your case to use it (unless it’s huge and shouldn’t be on your iPhone in the first place).  The way this cradle holds on to your iPhone is very unique, yet simple; there’s a very giving metal and rubber bracket that flexes to the exact shape of your iDevice+Case combo.  It holds tightly, and can rotate to a landscape orientation as well.  You’re going to need this if you’re using this for GPS guidance for an extended period of time, because connecting a USB cable while in portrait mode is not ideal.  You could do the whole thing upside down, but that’s just wrong.  Also to note, the whole clip that holds your iPhone wobbles a bit.  This is on purpose; it’s supposed to minimize how much your iPhone moves.  It won’t help if you hit a speed bump at 60 mph, but under normal usage it won’t really even move.  So, I guess I’m a little confused as to why it’s able to wobble at all.

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It’s time for our weekly digest of tiny iPhone reviews, courtesy of iPhoneTiny.com, with some extra commentary exclusive to Cult of Mac. This time, we review Air Assault, Bad Apples, Fire Drop Free, Ghost Capture – Free, Heli Rescue, Internet Radio Box, Sunday Lawn, synthPond Lite, Tiki Totems, and Titanic Rescue. APP OF THE WEEK Internet Radio Box:

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This week, Consumer Reports published the results of their latest tech support survey, and no surprise here: Apple came out as the number one company in both laptops and desktops. As usual, Consumer Reports asked 7,000 subscribers about their satisfaction with tech related dealings with various companies. At the end of the day, Apple scored

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U.S. bookseller Barnes & Noble claims to be unconcerned about the iPad’s threat against their own e-reader, the Nook. Indeed, they are so excited about the possibilities of the iPad that they are now promising iPad owners that they can expect to download their own free Barnes & Noble e-reading software just around the time

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Section: Mac Software , Audio / Video , Features , Hands On / First Looks , Originals Category: Video editing/effects Developer: Creaceed System Requirements: Intel-based Mac, Mac OS X v10.6, 64 MB VRAM Review Computer: 2.2GHz 13” Macbook Pro, 2GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM Network Feature: No Processor Compatibility: Intel Price: $39.95 while in Beta, $59.95 for final version Availability: Out now in Beta One of the hassles of dealing with “pro” level software is that quite often it won’t do something simple you need it to because, well, that’s not how professionals do things. Page layout programs—perfect example—won’t let you italicize any text the way Word does—you have to have the italic version of the font. Likewise, video editing and effects can be a pain if you’re looking for a simple fix, or tools that are common in photo editing. Elasty HD is a box full of odd and useful things that can be difficult, impossible, or expensive to find in another application. Elasty HD has four categories of effects. The first brings photo-type controls: crop, flip and (hallelujah) rotate video with a click. Also included is a basic image stabilization function, designed to steady video from a hand-held. Generally speaking, this works well, though you’ll want to combine it with the crop function to prevent the black edges of the frame from creeping into the video. The next function, Probes, is combined with the third function, Effects, so I’ll talk about them in reverse order. The Effects are simple layovers: beating hearts, distortion, halftones, streaks of light, and even a blur if you want to pretend you’re on COPS . Simple, cheesy, and fun. The Probes allow these static effects to move around the screen

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Filed under: Apple Corporate , Hardware , Apple On Wednesday, Consumer Reports published the results of its latest tech support survey. Apple was on top for both laptops and desktops, well ahead of the company in second place. Consumer Reports asked 7,000 subscribers about their satisfaction with their computer companies across categories like problem solved, phone waits, phone staff and online support. Each answer was issued a point value, with a maximum of 100 points. Among laptops, Apple scored 86 points. The second place finisher, Lenovo , accumulated up 63 points, for an impressive margin of 23 points. The rest of the leader board includes Toshiba (60 points), Dell (56 points), HP/Compaq (53 points), and Acer/Gateway/eMachines (39 points). Apple scored even better with desktops, racking up 87 total points and leading the field in all categories. Here the 2nd place competitor was Dell which scored 55 points among the participants, a full 32 points behind. Of course, fanboys like you and me are convinced of Apple quality. Now we have some good ‘ol empirical data to toss at our PC-thumping friends and relatives. [h/t to cnet & Jim Dalrymple ] Apple tops Consumer Reports’ tech support survey, second place not even close originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds

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Square-Enix recently brought its popular Final Fantasy series to the iPhone, and now another heavy-hitter, Capcom, is bringing yet another marquee title to the platform. That title is Street Fighter — and Street Fighter IV, a port of the latest installment in the series, is now available for purchase in the App Store for $9.99. But wait, that’s a fighting game. On the iPhone. Which has no physical controls. Sure, there’s been a few to date, with mixed results, but there must be a reason the genre hasn’t caught on with developers with the ferocity of, say, accelerometer-based driving games, no? That’s definitely what I thought, but I purchased and downloaded the game anyway, against my better instincts, because I love the series, notably Street Fighter IV for the PS3. And because when I was considering a purchase, it had only received five-star reviews, which is rare even in the early going for any iPhone game. Luckily, I was not disappointed

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Section: Macintosh / Apple Hardware , Laptops , MacBook Air , MacBook , MacBook Pro , Peripherals , Cases / Bags , Features , Contests and Giveaways A few months ago, the fine people at Saddleback Leather provided us with a medium laptop case for review. Now they’re extending that generosity to you by allowing us to give it away to one of our readers. This is 100% waterproof full grain boot leather with a high density Neoprene padding, and is valued at $265. It’s lightly used, but as is the case with all quality leather products, we like to refer to it as being “broken in.” If you read my review (all pieces covered in the review are included in the giveaway) but didn’t get your order in for the Saddleback Leather laptop case, this may be your last chance. Saddleback Leather has discontinued their laptop case line, directing portable computer users towards their line of thin briefcases , instead. Good thing we’ve made winning this one easy to do. To enter, just follow these three easy steps: Read the Saddleback Leather Laptop Case Contest Rules . Make sure you’re registered with Appletell and logged in. Leave us a comment below on this page , not on the contest rules page. Doesn’t matter what you say, just tell us hello if you want to. That’s all there is to it. Entries will be accepted from March 8th through March 21st. The winner will be randomly selected from all qualified entries, and will be notified by March 28th.

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Section: Apple News , Commercials and Ads , iPhone / iPod touch / iPad , iPad If you were watching the Oscars last night, you may have caught sight of Apple’s brand new advertisement for the much awaited iPad . The ad itself races through (with shortened sequences, of course) several features of the device, making it seem irresistible to potential customers, and giving you the chance to “Meet iPad,” as the title suggests. Like many of you, I was already convinced I wanted to pick up an iPad on launch day, but if you weren’t sure, maybe seeing the advert changed your mind. The Oscars seems to be an important event for Apple. The “Hello” iPhone advert premiered during the 2007 Oscars awards, and according to sources on Twitter, Steve Jobs was spotted on the red carpet at this years event—likely for his strong connections with Pixar and Disney. We’ll likely see a couple more advertisements in the run up to April 3rd iPad release , and we’ll keep you posted. You can watch the video in all its glory over on the Apple website , or catch it below from their YouTube channel. Enjoy. Full Story » | Written by Ed Parry for Appletell . | Comment on this Article »

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Section: Reviews Provides: Voice activation for alarm and time settings Developer: Moshi Lifestyle Minimum Requirements: AC wall outlet (3 AAA batteries for backup), voice Price: $49.99 Availability: Now What does an alarm clock have to do with Apple products? Not much, in this case. There’s no iPhone dock, no iPod compatibility at all. This is just an alarm clock, but with one fairly unique feature; it’s almost entirely voice activated. So, let’s say you’re getting a little to used to calling up your music by simply stating the name of the band and the song. Or maybe you use voice dialing on your iPhone pretty much every time you make a call. You can now carry that simplicity over to setting your alarm at night and waking up in the morning. The conversation goes like this: You: “Hello, Moshi.” Moshi: “Welcome. Command Please.” You: “Set time.” Moshi: “What is the current time?” You: “3:45 p.m.” And there you go. The time is now set.

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