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VLC, Vesper and other awesome apps you might have missed

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Awesome-apps-of-the-week

It’s the weekend, and Cult of Mac is here to bring you a roundup of all the app goodness you might have missed from the last week.

VLC makes its triumphant return to the App Store, a great printing tool becomes Apple’s free app of the week, a premium todo app goes universal, and more.

Without further ado, here are this week’s awesome apps!


Awesome Apps

Chinese Android phone takes copying Apple to another level

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Designed by who in where? Photo: Android Authority
Designed by who in where? Photo: Android Authority

Forget Comcast, ZTE takes the cake with the most blatant Apple-ripoff-of-the-month award. The Chinese company’s latest handset, the Blade S6, is clearly… inspired by the iPhone.

While it doesn’t have the identical chamfered edges of Samsung’s upcoming phone, it does copy the most iconic part of every Apple product.

Steve Wozniak declares FCC’s net neutrality ruling a ‘victory for the people’

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stevewozz
The Woz is happy about today's FCC ruling.

Today the FCC made a historic move to protect net neutrality. By reclassifying ISPs under Title II of the Communications Act, the internet is now regulated like a utility.

“While some other countries try to control the internet, the action that we take today is an irrefutable reflection of the principle that no one, whether government or corporate, should control a free and open access to the internet,” said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler during a packed meeting today in Washington DC.

In attendance at the meeting was Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who called the FCC’s decision a “victory for the people.”

Tim Cook to give 2015 commencement address at George Washington University

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Tim Cook is going to BoxWorks.
Tim Cook is giving his second commencement address.
Photo: Apple

On May 17, Tim Cook will be giving the commencement address to the 2015 graduating class of George Washington University. He will also be awarded a honorary doctorate of public service.

It will be the Apple CEO’s second time giving such a speech after addressing his alma mater Auburn University in 2010.

Watch Tim Cook and the president of Israel share the love

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Photo: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO
Photo: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO

Tim Cook is currently visiting Israel in conjunction with Apple opening a new office in Herzliya. As part of the trip, he met with the president of Israel, Reuven Rivlin.

The two leaders showed great respect for each other during a chat at the president’s residence. Along with recognizing an Israeli Apple VP in attendance with Cook, Rivlin thanked the Apple CEO repeatedly for “what you are doing for all humanity.” Cook talked about Apple’s love for Israel as an “ally for the U.S.” and a “place to do business.” Cook also praised Rivlin’s work to “bridge the gap” between nationalities and religions in the Middle East.

Final Cut Pro X finally gets some love from Hollywood

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Photo: Warner Bros. Entertainment
Photo: Warner Bros. Entertainment

If you plan on seeing Focus starring Will Smith and Margot Robbie this weekend, you will be watching the first major studio film edited entirely with Final Cut Pro X.

Originally criticized as “iMovie Pro” for its incredibly simplistic interface and feature set, Final Cut Pro X has managed to start wooing Hollywood filmmakers by slowly adding back missed tools along with new ones. Now the directors behind Focus think it’s the future of movie editing.

Astropad and other awesome apps you might have missed this week

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awesome

It’s the weekend, and Cult of Mac is here to bring you a roundup of all the app goodness you might have missed over the last seven days.

Apps for turning your iPad into a sketch board for your Mac, keeping records of all your stuff, and yes, even Microsoft Office made it into the roundup this time around. It’s a stellar lineup, so be sure to stay till the end.

Without further ado, here are this week’s awesome apps!


Awesome Apps

Apple starts free repair program for glitchy MacBook Pros

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It's too late to take advantage of a free repair.
If you're MacBook looks like this, you may be in luck. Photo: Change.org
Photo: Change.org

Does your MacBook Pro freak out with distorted graphics or randomly restart? Then you’ll want to take advantage of Apple’s new repair program.

After deeming that a “small percentage of MacBook Pro systems may exhibit distorted video, no video, or unexpected system restarts,” Apple will start fixing parts for free on select MacBook Pro models.

How Alto’s Adventure became your next favorite iPhone game

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Photo: Snowman
Photo: Snowman

One of Ryan Cash’s favorite games growing up was GoldenEye on the N64. “One thing I remember so clearly is that the game was hard,” he recalled. “You couldn’t just beat the game on its toughest setting if you weren’t amazing.”

Luckily for Cash, his friend Bruno was a master at GoldenEye, and he would come over to unlock cheats. “He was the guy,” Cash remembered.

Most of us probably had a Bruno growing up. Back when you couldn’t pay $1.99 with Touch ID to unlock more gems or coins. Back when games were just as fun as mobile games are now, but also challenging and dependent on skill.

With Alto’s Adventure, out today in the App Store for $1.99, Cash and the rest of his team drew from the games they love to make something unique. They’ve created a game that’s not only really fun to play, but beautiful to behold. And unlike GoldenEye, there are no cheat codes to help you get ahead.

Samsung tries to buy its way onto Apple Pay’s turf with LoopPay

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loop-pay
Photo: LoopPay

Samsung has bought its own Apple Pay competitor with LoopPay, a U.S. startup that makes cases and accessories for wirelessly transmitting card data with a magnetic signal.

First rumored back in December, Samsung will allegedly integrate LoopPay’s technology into its upcoming phones in an effort to ride the growing mobile payments trend created by Apple Pay.

Stir’s M1 is the smartest standing desk yet

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m1black01
A standing desk Jony Ive would love? Photo: Stir Works

Sitting is bad for you. A quick Google search shows tons of research on how standing throughout the day will make you significantly healthier and possibly even extend your life.

Thanks to the scientific community’s heightened focus on sitting’s negative side effects in recent years, there’s no shortage of standing desks to choose from for just about any situation.

We’ve reviewed our fair share at Cult of Mac, like the NextDesk Terra, the NewHeights, and the Ergotron WorkFit-A. But the new M1 from Stir Kinetic Desk is not only as elegant and high-quality as anything we’ve seen, it’s way smarter.

BlackBerry sues Ryan Seacrest’s Typo iPhone keyboard case again

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Want to turn your iPhone into a BlackBerry. No? Then this case probably isn't for you.
Photo: Typo
Photo: Typo

You’d think one patent-infringement lawsuit would be enough, but Ryan Seacrest’s iPhone case startup clearly didn’t get the message after its last courtroom tangle with BlackBerry.

The new Typo Keyboard for the iPhone 6 was supposed to have fixed any infringement issues committed by its predecessor, but that is apparently not the case. This week BlackBerry filed another lawsuit against Typo, claiming the case maker “slavishly copied” its keyboard design “down to the smallest detail.”

Apollo program inspired Jony Ive to make a ‘spacesuit’

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What would a Jony Ive spacesuit look like? Photo: Sotheby's
What would a Jony Ive spacesuit look like? Photo: Sotheby's

When you’ve designed some of the most successful consumer electronics in modern history, where else can you look but up?

One of the many interesting tidbits in The New Yorker’s 17,000-word profile of Jony Ive surrounds his fascination with the Apollo space program and, yes, designing spacesuits. It doesn’t sound like the spacesuit itself was what inspired Apple’s top designer as much as the process that went into it.

Ive mentions he’s been watching the old Discovery channel series Moon Machine about the challenges facing the Apollo program. NASA designers had no idea what goals they even needed to meet for the suit, but built up to the final design with invention after invention until they got it right.

An anecdote from The New Yorker’s time in Ive’s hallowed design studio (emphasis added):

The Onion takes on the Apple car

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The mythological Apple car. It's actually supposed to look more like a minivan, according to reports. Photo: The Onion
The mythological Apple car. It's actually supposed to look more like a minivan, according to reports. Photo: The Onion

Nothing quite solidifies an Apple product’s significance in pop culture like The Onion’s take. America’s satirical publication of note has already decided to give us a glimpse at the rumored Apple car.

The mysterious automotive project that’s reportedly codenamed “Titan” will have the following features:

The awesome apps you might have missed last week

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Awesome-Apps-of-the-Week

It’s the weekend, which means that Cult of Mac is ready to bring you a roundup of the last week’s best new app releases and updates for iOS and Mac.

From the week's best new iOS shooter, to a significant live-streaming app update to Twitter, to a gorgeous new Mac Twitter client, we've got what you need to make your next week an 'appy one

Pun fully intended!


Photo: Cult of Mac
Awesome Apps

Visa, MasterCard follow Apple Pay’s lead with beefed-up security

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A war for mobile wallet dominance is on the horizon. Apple Pay. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
The industry is embracing tokenization and biometric security, both of which are Apple Pay's marquee strengths. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple wasn’t kidding when it said Apple Pay would transform mobile payments. Built around easy of use and security, Apple Pay is the industry’s first solution that benefits users and banks.

The security aspect of Apple Pay has been especially crucial to its early success, and now the big credit card companies have been spurred to follow suit. Today both Visa and MasterCard announced new security initiatives to protect against cyberattacks. Visa in particular has borrowed one of Apple Pay’s key ideas: tokenization.

Apple in talks with banks to bring Apple Pay to Brazil

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Apple in talks to bring Apple Pay to Israel
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Although Apple Pay has seen rapid adoption, it’s still only technically available in the United States. Credit cards issued by U.S. banks have been reported to work with NFC terminals around the world, but no international banks have supported the mobile payments solution yet.

Apple is already working on rolling out Apple Pay in Europe and China, and now it’s been reported that the company is in talks with banks in South America.