TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

One of the oddest-looking iPad accessories that I've ever reviewed showed up last month, and if wasn't so doggone useful, I would have written this review sooner. The CushPad (US$34.99) looks and feels like a pillow, but it's actually a soft, washable stand for the iPad 2. Design The shape and size of the CushPad probably limits...

One of our first appointments here at CES this week was with a company called Nukotoys, which co-CEO Rodger Raderman told us was interested in asking the question for today's children: "What is a toy?" As we've reported here before, more kids than ever are interested in getting iPod touches and even iPads as gifts, so Nukotoys wants...

As Richard said sharply a few weeks ago, there really hasn't been a rush to plenty when it comes to Thunderbolt storage options from third-party vendors. That's apparently about to change for the better, as a slew of top-tier manufacturers are announcing products at this week's CES extravaganza. The fine folks at LaCie (makers of...

If you haven't heard of OnLive before, get ready to hear a lot more about them in 2012. The streaming company has been around for a few years, but is just now making some major inroads into streaming all sorts of services to your iPad. We've already covered the OnLive offering for Mac, console and iPad gaming, and it's pretty...

Griffin has announced an accessory called Twenty, a small audio amplifier that will accept audio from an AirPort Express to drive unpowered speakers. The Twenty includes a TOSLINK cable to deliver pure digital audio from the AirPort Express to the unit, and additional connectors in the back allow you to plug speakers right in. As...

It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below....

Belkin has announced its Thunderbolt Express Dock, a small unit that will allow owners of Thunderbolt-capable Macs to plug multiple peripherals into their Macs via a single cable. As reported by AppleInsider, Belkin's Thunderbolt Express Dock includes the following built-in ports: Gigabit Ethernet 3 USB 2.0 ports 1...

The iPhone 4S is set to launch in China a few days from now via China Unicom, a GSM-based provider that has been the sole iPhone-compatible Chinese carrier thus far. According to AllThingsD, China may be getting ready to add a second carrier to the mix: CDMA-based wireless carrier China Telecom. Apple has reportedly received...

Apple has released the third beta of iOS 5.1 to developers. iOS 5.1 beta 2 was released nearly a month ago, but now that the holiday lull is out of the way it's probably not going to take that long before the next beta comes out. The beta is available both through over-the-air download and a direct download link on the Apple...

Spotify is the über-popular music service that lets you stream a huge library of music to your computer. You can also use the service on your iPhone with a premium subscription, letting you either sync and listen to your own music, or stream Spotify's tracks straight to your mobile device wherever you happen to be. The...

Lately I've become a big fan of making photo collages. They can be a bit complicated to create in Photoshop or Elements, so we're beginning to see simpler targeted apps appear for both iOS and Mac OSX. We've reviewed one nice app for iOS called Diptic and now I want to turn your attention to TurboCollage for the Mac, now available in...

On Friday, January 6, Apple stock quietly achieved a milestone by closing at an all-time record high price of US$422.40 per share. Even better, the stock has just passed an all-time intraday high (it was at $427.75 earlier this morning). That puts the company's market capitalization tantalizingly near $400 billion. That's not the...

Wow, what a surprising turn of events! Yet another consumer electronics manufacturer has unveiled something "new" that appears to be a blatant copy of something that Apple created. In this case, the guilty party is Taiwanese computer manufacturer Acer. When they're not jumping on the "Ultrabook" bandwagon along with other...

To Apple-watchers -- in particular tech bloggers -- it seems like Apple is taking forever to settle the lawsuits that are pending against Samsung and other smartphone manufacturers for allegedly infringing on the company's intellectual property. On Fortune's Apple 2.0 site today, long-time Apple analyst Philip Elmer-DeWitt explains why...

SoundHound is a music search and discovery tool for the iPhone, iPad and Android devices. The app has 50 million worldwide users and boasts of over four million music searches per day. The company recently released its Top Ten Identified songs and at the top of the charts was Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People. The sleeper hit...

The portability of the iPad and iPhone makes it easy to use these devices in your kitchen, at your desk and everywhere in between. One challenge to using your iPad in these locations is finding a case, holder or stand that protects your device from inadvertent spills or drops. One company with a novel stand for everywhere you go is...

As Richard said sharply a few weeks ago, there really hasn't been a rush to plenty when it comes to Thunderbolt storage options from third-party vendors. That's apparently about to change for the better, as a slew of top-tier manufacturers are announcing products at this week's CES extravaganza. The fine folks at LaCie (makers of...

Griffin has announced an accessory called Twenty, a small audio amplifier that will accept audio from an AirPort Express to drive unpowered speakers. The Twenty includes a TOSLINK cable to deliver pure digital audio from the AirPort Express to the unit, and additional connectors in the back allow you to plug speakers right in. As...

Belkin has announced its Thunderbolt Express Dock, a small unit that will allow owners of Thunderbolt-capable Macs to plug multiple peripherals into their Macs via a single cable. As reported by AppleInsider, Belkin's Thunderbolt Express Dock includes the following built-in ports: Gigabit Ethernet 3 USB 2.0 ports 1...

Lately I've become a big fan of making photo collages. They can be a bit complicated to create in Photoshop or Elements, so we're beginning to see simpler targeted apps appear for both iOS and Mac OSX. We've reviewed one nice app for iOS called Diptic and now I want to turn your attention to TurboCollage for the Mac, now available in...

Howdy kids! It's been a couple of weeks since we all got together on a Sunday evening what with all the holiday hullabaloo, so now that we're all nice and settled in to the new year, let's hang out and catch up, shall we? We have all the gifts to talk about, the trials and tribulations of heading home and ending up as tech support,...

It's January 6th, 2012, and today marks the end of the TUAW Best of 2011 awards. This was a massive undertaking, with 25 separate categories all requiring their own nominations and voting from our readers. We've learned some lessons for next year's event -- start earlier, watch for astroturfing in the nominations, drop some unpopular...

Fluid lets you create an "app" out of a website. If you use one specific website all the time, this alone is very handy. For example, if you wanted a browser specifically for Gmail, you could make one using Fluid and set its own icon, download directory, and other settings. Or maybe you heard about Facebook tracking users even when...

Target is one of those stores that quietly carries a variety of Apple products. In between speakers and keyboards, you can find iPads, iPods and iTunes gift cards. Soon, you may find an Airport Extreme and maybe even a MacBook Air. This prediction is based on a report from AppleInsider, which suggests Apple may be opening mini-stores...

Apple's MagSafe power cables are great. They quick release from their port and protect your notebook from clumsy adults and over-zealous children who get tangled in your power cord. The first generation of these cords, however, had a defect that caused the wires to fray; that posed a potential fire hazard to customers. The problem...

In its ongoing suit against unauthorized Mac clone maker Psystar, Apple has been denied in its bid to keep certain information about OS X sealed from public view. According to Bloomberg, Judge William Alsup noted that information Apple claims are "trade secrets" are already publicly available on the internet from a variety of...

Just ahead of the first days of CES 2012, Hitachi has introduced a line of new hard drive solutions for the Mac. The drives range in capacity from 750 GB up to a whopping 8 TB, and cover the gamut from internal drives to desktop and mobile solutions. The internal drives that Hitachi is bringing to the table include the 2.5-inch...

For many people, it's kind of pointless to go searching for a Dock replacement. The Dock itself is one of the most attractive features of OS X and is actually one of the things that lured me into adopting Macs at home seven years ago. But when you have a smaller screen to work with, especially on a MacBook Air, space is a premium....

Apple Stores continue to be a target for theft around the United States, apparently -- this time a robbery went down in Scottsdale, Arizona, where a trio of young thieves busted in the glass doors on an Apple Store, and tried to get away with $75,000 worth of Apple devices. The group robbed the store at around 2 AM on the second day...

Star Wars: The Old Republic is the new hotness in massively multiplayer games, and I'm really enjoying playing a smuggler on my PC. But unlike Blizzard, which makes World of Warcraft and has had a long policy of releasing both PC and Mac versions on the same disc, BioWare (who makes SW:TOR, as the kids call it) hasn't released a Mac...

As many TUAW readers know, I have a serious love affair with my 11" MacBook Air. If there's one issue that I have with it, it's that sometimes that screen seems just a little too small. Now AOC has released the e1649Fwu 16" Portable USB Monitor ($139.99) that is perfect for those situations where you want a second monitor for your...

With the first day of the new year falling on a Sunday, it's is a great day to organize whatever resolutions you've made. Here are a few apps to get started with. Get more organized I'm spending my day getting my tasks lined up in 2Do ($6.99), which is one of the most reasonably priced to-do apps; it not only looks nice but packs...

The iPhone 4S is set to launch in China a few days from now via China Unicom, a GSM-based provider that has been the sole iPhone-compatible Chinese carrier thus far. According to AllThingsD, China may be getting ready to add a second carrier to the mix: CDMA-based wireless carrier China Telecom. Apple has reportedly received...

Apple has released the third beta of iOS 5.1 to developers. iOS 5.1 beta 2 was released nearly a month ago, but now that the holiday lull is out of the way it's probably not going to take that long before the next beta comes out. The beta is available both through over-the-air download and a direct download link on the Apple...

Spotify is the über-popular music service that lets you stream a huge library of music to your computer. You can also use the service on your iPhone with a premium subscription, letting you either sync and listen to your own music, or stream Spotify's tracks straight to your mobile device wherever you happen to be. The...

To Apple-watchers -- in particular tech bloggers -- it seems like Apple is taking forever to settle the lawsuits that are pending against Samsung and other smartphone manufacturers for allegedly infringing on the company's intellectual property. On Fortune's Apple 2.0 site today, long-time Apple analyst Philip Elmer-DeWitt explains why...

SoundHound is a music search and discovery tool for the iPhone, iPad and Android devices. The app has 50 million worldwide users and boasts of over four million music searches per day. The company recently released its Top Ten Identified songs and at the top of the charts was Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People. The sleeper hit...

The portability of the iPad and iPhone makes it easy to use these devices in your kitchen, at your desk and everywhere in between. One challenge to using your iPad in these locations is finding a case, holder or stand that protects your device from inadvertent spills or drops. One company with a novel stand for everywhere you go is...

There's something intriguing about Fathead, but honestly, I don't really know what it is. The game is pretty standard -- similar to other titles like Jelly Car or Epic Truck, the goal is to drive a physics-based vehicle across a 2D world, landing jumps and flips as you can. And Fathead has the same issues that those games have: The...

Yeah, it sounds too good to be true. But that really is an iPhone in the cylinder above. Liquipel claims to make your smartphone water resistant by bonding it inside and out with a "nano" coating which repels water. While this isn't for deep sea diving, it appears to be an ideal solution if you are clumsy or happen to be around...

ION Audio has had a hit this last year with its iCade arcade cabinet, a standalone Bluetooth controller for the iPad that turned Apple's tablet into a miniature arcade system. And now the company is following up that success with three new devices, meant to make games on the iPhone and iPod touch a little more tactile. The first...

Disney is the latest company to announce some crazy numbers from last year's holiday season (with Rovio having announced big numbers earlier this week, and the App Store overall seeing a big boost in sales over the holiday). The biggest title in the company's catalog was Where's My Water, which saw more than 6 million downloads over...

It's January 6th, 2012, and today marks the end of the TUAW Best of 2011 awards. This was a massive undertaking, with 25 separate categories all requiring their own nominations and voting from our readers. We've learned some lessons for next year's event -- start earlier, watch for astroturfing in the nominations, drop some unpopular...

With all the holidays, many of us TUAWians spent more time on the road over the past few weeks than we normally do. And when it comes to tech-savvy bloggers, more time on the road means more time with navigation apps. And more time with navigation apps made us ever more aware of our lingering frustrations with the most popular...

One time, I spent hours wandering the parking lot after a concert. I really wish I had marked the location of my car and not relied on my memory to navigate. Next time I find myself in that situation, I'm going to use Find My Car Smarter. It's a Kickstarter project from FMC Smart which automatically marks your location every time...

Want a free iPhone 4S? If you're a customer of China Unicom, you're in luck -- the company announced today (one week from the first day of iPhone 4S availability in China and 21 other countries) that they'll give users a free iPhone 4S for signing a multiyear service contract. It gets better. The promotion offers the 32 GB iPhone...

A new study by telecom network tech firm Arieso shows that owners of Apple's new iPhone 4S are using almost twice as much data with their devices than iPhone 4 users, and almost three times as much as iPhone 3G users. The report, covered by Reuters, shows that the primary driver of the data usage is the Siri intelligent assistant....

iPhone sales are almost always good, and when Apple reports 1st quarter sales on January 24th, all the signs point to some really excellent numbers. Earlier this week, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo reported 4.2 million iPhone sales, which doubled the company's 3rd quarter numbers. Some analysts estimate AT&T sold about 7 million...