Mailbox, the hugely popular third-party Gmail client for iOS that has changed the way we manage our emails, is now available on the iPad. The update comes just over three months after Mailbox made its debut on the iPhone, and you’ll be pleased to know that you no longer have to wait in line to use it.

Mailbox for iPad looks a lot like Apple’s built-in Mail app in landscape mode; it displays a list of emails on the left side of the page, then gives you a window in which to read them on the right. You can use the buttons at the top of the page to switch between your inbox, your archive, and your “later” list.

Tap the menu button and the messages list will slide over to reveal the rest of your folders, including trash and sent, as well as the settings and help buttons. Mailbox is designed to work in landscape mode only, so you cannot use it in portrait.

If you’re a Mailbox user on iPhone, then the rest of the app and its features will already be familiar to you. All of Mailbox’s unique features are there, including the ability to save emails to a special list for actioning later. You can even specify when you’d like to action them and Mailbox will make sure you don’t forget.

Mailbox for iPad is pretty terrific from what I’ve experienced so far, but I do have one gripe with it: When composing a new email, or replying to one, it presents you with a tiny little window in the middle of the display. Why doesn’t the app take advantage of the iPad’s big screen?

As always, Mailbox is completely free, and it supports up to five Gmail accounts. The team behind it, which is now owned by Dropbox, promises that support for other email services will come later on, as will Mailbox clients for other platforms, including Android.

Source: App Store

This post was written by Killian Bell from Cult of Mac.
You can view the original post by clicking here.

Today Eton added the Rugged Rukus to their Rukus line of Bluetooth speakers. Like most of its Rukus siblings, the Rugged is solar-powered; unlike its siblings, the Rugged is splashproof. A great addition  for our all-hell-has-broken-loose list.

The Rugged Rukus carries a waterproof rating of IPX4, which means it’s pretty much immune to splashes (just don’t drop it in the bathtub or hose it down); it’s also tough enough to survive drops from about three feet. And of course it’s solar-powered — you can even charge devices (including tablets) off its eight-hour lithium battery.

The Rugged Rukus should be available about now at REI, Apple stores and on Amazon for $100 — pretty good for a speaker with all that special sauce.

This post was written by Eli Milchman from Cult of Mac.
You can view the original post by clicking here.

This is interesting: along with their new redesign, in Germany, Apple has made it possible to pay for products ordered from their online store using PayPal.

In Germany, it is very rare for consumers to have credit cards, or even for brick-and-mortar businesses to take credit card orders. Allowing German consumers to pay for purchases with PayPal may make the Apple online store more accessible to them, or it could be the first sign of a global agreement between Apple and PayPal as another available payment option for consumers.

Nice spot by Macerkopf.

Source: Apple Store

This post was written by John Brownlee from Cult of Mac.
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One of Intel’s biggest mistakes in the last decade was being blind-sided by the rise of mobile devices. Intel should have seen it coming: Apple asked Intel to make chips for the original iPhone, only to be turned down. Simultaneously, Cupertino was pressuring Intel to get the power-management of their chips under control. It’s not too far-fetched to say that if Intel had been paying attention to all the signals, then today they could be as dominant in mobile chips as they are in PCs and servers.

But Intel under former CEO Paul Otellini turned a blind-eye to mobile until it was too late. It’s a mistake new Intel CEO Brian Krzanich is determined not to repeat, which is why he has created a brand new “New Devices” division within Intel to focus on emerging trends, including “ultra-mobile devices.”

What’s an ultra-mobile device? Think wearable computing, like Google Glass or the iWatch.

Heading up Intel’s New Devices division is Mike Bell, an executive who has been heading up Intel’s (still struggling) mobile chip business, and spearheaded initiatives like getting Android running on x86.

The whole idea of New Devices is a sort of a seismograph to make sure that the next big threat to Intel’s business — a radically shifting tech landscape that comes seemingly out of nowhere — is detected in its earliest stages, and Intel pivots to not just counter, but ride the wave.

“The group will be tasked with turning cool technology and business model innovations into products that shape and lead markets,” Intel said in a statement to AllThingsD.

In the short term, just based on Intel’s statements, it seems obvious that the chipmaker is going to focus on wearable computing, hence their determined focus on “ultra-mobile devices.” If that term confuses you, just think of it this way: what’s more mobile than a smartphone in your pocket? How about a computer you never take off: the iWatch.

Source: All Things D

This post was written by John Brownlee from Cult of Mac.
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Where do I put the betamax?

Ok, so if you’ve been paying attention to the gaming space today, you’ll know that Microsoft unveiled its new gaming console, the XBox One. This next generation console is going to play video games, control your TV (sort of), and act as a DVD/Blue-Ray player. It’s got a Kinect motion sensor box on top, which can not be disconnected and it won’t play XBox 360 discs.

This is all well and good, and represents a step forward in Microsoft’s quest to own the living room, even though a lot of us don’t have the time, space, or extra cash to spend on a huge entertainment hub these days, anyway. That’s really not what bothers me, though.

The XBox One is just uglier than anything I could have imagined.

Heck, my ten year-old son, not a maven of design in any way, saw pictures of the new XBox, and chuckled. “Why is it bigger than the XBox 360?” he asked. “It looks the same, just more square.”

Which really made it all hit home for me: design matters. The case design of the XBox One is firmly rooted in the past. Which makes a lot of sense if you consider the reveal today, full of the same games and the same brands with better graphics.

Take a look at this beast. It looks like a relic of the early 1990s, with the squared corners, tall, thick profile, and those odd cross hatching lines that must be for cooling purposes but just end up looking like a 1980s science fiction author’s idea of a cyber-deck.

I suppose I could live with such a big fat presence in the living room if it didn’t completely remind me that the days of the monolithic gaming console/entertainment hub are coming to an end. Microsoft showed its hand today–echoed in the flat, unimaginative design of the XBox One. The looks of this monstrosity are shouting loud and clear, “We’ve run out of ideas, so we’re going to do more of the same.”

What Microsoft, and to a lesser degree, Sony and Nintendo, really needed to do for this new generation of consoles was take a quick look around them at what’s already happening. These mega-gaming corporations have missed something essential.

The gaming population is no longer congruent with the console population. We connect Apple TVs and Roku boxes to our huge HDTVs to watch on-demand shows while we multitask on our iPads. We fund innovative startups like Ouya because we want something different, dammit, and the XBox One just isn’t it.

Same as the old boss.

The design of an electronic entertainment hub says a lot about its purpose. Microsoft wants to dominate the space in our hypothetical living rooms, and the XBox one says so loud and clear, with the immensity of its casing and the huge Xbox logo front and center on each component piece. Do we even have stereos like that anymore? Maybe audiophiles do, but not the rest of us.

If the console makers want to expand their business, this is not the way to do it. Hire someone like Jonathan Ive, or–better yet–someone brand new and fresh, who knows that the way a product looks will define what that product feels like to the consumer.

Design a console that reflects our current and near-future gaming and entertainment reality, full of mobility, openness, and choice. Bring a console to life that gets what Ouya is trying to do, that understands the as-yet-unfulfilled promise of Apple TV and iOS gaming, that can breathe new life into the Steam ecosystem and play well with others.

Sadly, I don’t hold any hope for this to happen withint he big three gaming companies of the last few generations of console hardware. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo are treading water, paddling for dear life to stay afloat in a rapidly changing world.

Will Microsoft sell a lot of these fugly XBox One consoles? Probably. Will the current conservative model of gaming and design inspire the next generation of gamers and developers to reach new heights and explore innovative ideas? Probably not.

Image: Wired

This post was written by Rob LeFebvre from Cult of Mac.
You can view the original post by clicking here.