Nicole Martinelli - page 4

Secret Photos, Videos, Contacts? Yep, There Are Apps for That

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secretapp

If you have material on your iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad that you don’t want anyone to see, there’s a better solution than hiding the app icons, which is currently how Apple allows you to handle that red-hot material.

There are at least a dozen apps — free and paid — in iTunes that serve as kind of a secret locker for the stuff you don’t want prying eyes to see. I checked out the free version of the popular Secret Apps, called Secret Apps Lite, which is so comprehensive that I’m a little ashamed to have nothing worth hiding that carefully.

The settings on the free version include options for a real and decoy passcode. The default security is set to take a picture on login and save it as a security log, providing photographic evidence of the person clever enough to have figured out both your real and decoy pass codes.

The login record - with photos.
The login record – note the option to take automatic photos.

Once in, you can import photos, contacts, files and take notes plus browse Safari in private mode. Of course, there are a few caveats: for example, the photos must be uploaded from your camera roll and once you’re inside (or your expert snoop is inside) they can be emailed or texted outside the “vault.”

And, while the app has an innocent enough sounding name (My Apps Lite) the icon resembles a combo lock. This probably won’t tip off the snoops in your life since it’s barely visible on an iPhone but it does become evident to suspicious minds on an iPad. One more thing for the record: the download shows up on your iTunes account activity as “Secret Apps.” If you’re going stealth, check out our tip in the article on hiding iTunes activity.

Exploring The Hidden Side Of iTunes Purchases and Downloads

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We owe at least one dark corner of iTunes to sneaky parents.

Back in 2011, Apple listened to what sounded like a chorus of adults who didn’t want their kids to know what mommy and daddy were doing on the family iPad by allowing users to “hide” purchases.

If you spend any time lurking around the more shadowy parts of the store, you’ll note how many of the reviews of these apps are comments from desperate users who want the traces of their momentary lapse in judgement wiped clean. The ability to hide purchases and downloads changes that, to a point.

Reviews from an adult "Truth or Dare" game.
Reviews from an adult “Truth or Dare” game.

Like a lot of things in iTunes, the destination may be straightforward but the road is tortuous, making it easy in effect for multiple users (parents, kids, co-workers) to hide what they buy (or download) on iTunes.

The key word here: hide. Apple will not delete a record of anything you download or buy on your devices, unless in the first 90 days you ask for a “refund” or “report a problem.” (More on this below). Note that Apple considers free downloads “purchases,” so those go on  your permanent record “purchase history,” too.

This means that you can delete the dubious Kama Sutra app that your co-worker downloaded on the company iPad while at SXSW, but a record of its passing across your device will live on, forever, in the purchase history, even if it was free.

That said, there are two ways to squirrel your not-for-public-viewing materials under the virtual mattress. The first is the one authorized by Apple, the second one we stumbled across researching this story.

Method One: Create a “hidden list” of purchases or downloads

Once signed into your iTunes account, click on the “purchased” link under the Quick Links section on the right.

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Remember, this “purchased” also list includes any free media downloaded across any devices linked to this account — music, movies, TV shows, apps and books.

Using apps as an example, inside the purchase list, all the icons will appear with a “x” in the left-hand corner when you mouse over them. Clicking on the “x” hides them across all your devices. (Note: not deleted. I mean it: they will not be deleted from your device or your purchase history. Just hidden from view.)

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These records live on in the cloud. To see what may be hidden — or unhide them — head back to your “Account” section. Scroll down to iTunes in the Cloud and select “manage” under Hidden Purchases.

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From here, you can “unhide” them for easy access.

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Method two: Smokescreen

You may have noticed a problem: while it’s easy to hide questionable music and such, what about in-app purchases? These don’t show up on the previous menu, making, for example, a monthly Grindr Xtra subscription out in the open in your purchase history.

Under account information, click on “purchase history.” Here’s where the smokescreen comes in: Apple lumps all activity for one day together in a tiny, difficult-to-read grid with room for the barest description.

So it’s easy to bury something by downloading a couple of free, innocent-sounding apps at around the same time; without going inside the history for that particular day, you miss the whole picture.

Here’s a concrete example of what looks like account activity for December 12 – note: only two virtuous-looking downloads.

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To see the whole enchilada, you have to click on the tiny, left-hand arrow to open up that day’s worth of activity. Here you’ll note that three more downloads — look mom, Angry Birds! —  didn’t make it on to the first page.

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We’re going to bet that if your iTunes account gets heavy use by multiple people and multiple devices, you’d have to be a determined snoop to a) know Apple doesn’t list everything on the first page and b) open it up to see what else might be there. It’s also from this inside page with the full day’s purchases that you can “report a problem” and lobby to have the purchase removed, though many people have reported getting no satisfaction.

Apparently, an iTunes download is forever.

This Week In Cult of Mac Magazine: The CarPlay Revolution

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Cover design Rob LeFebvre.

This week Cult of Mac Magazine looks under the hood at Apple’s new CarPlay iOS 7.

Called “smart and seamless” by those lucky enough to test it out behind the wheel of a Ferrari at the International Geneva Motor Show, the system will be coming to a dashboard near you as soon as 2014.

Reporter Luke Dormehl talks to experts about what the impact will be for the rest of us: whether smart driving and whether we’ll all be heading down the road to the quantified ride anytime soon.

There is a lot of misinformation about CarPlay — from Apple’s relationship with automakers to the suggestion that it’s working side-by-side with BlackBerry  — and the analysts we spoke to have an interesting take on what the new system means for Apple and where the Cupertino company might be headed.

As always, we’re here for comments, suggestions and bug fixes, so send ’em to my email below or hit the “send” icon top right.

Cult of Mac Magazine

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Ferrari Debuts CarPlay In Geneva Tomorrow

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What comes first, the iOS or the car? It’ll be a toss up to see what turns more heads when Ferrari debuts Apple’s new CarPlay system tomorrow at the Geneva motor show.

The drool-worthy demo of the new iOS pairs it with the Italian carmaker’s much-anticipated California T, a 3.9-liter, direct-injected V8 convertible. Apple’s new Siri-controlled system will also be in play on the Ferrari FF, aka  the Ferrari Four, a four-wheel drive, four seater, pictured above.

Maranello announced as of tomorrow, March 4, Ferrari drivers can benefit from a “simpler and safer” system to use their iPhones behind the wheel.

Stay tuned!

Via Ferrari

This Week in Cult of Mac Magazine: Spring Clean Your Mac

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appmacrx Amazon

This week Cult of Mac Magazine looks into why your Mac gets crufty and what you can do about it.

You know how your friendly technician always tells you to just reboot the computer, but there’s got to be more to it than that, right?  

The good news is there are some things you can do. And, perhaps, adopt some more efficient computing practices for yourself along the way to keep those nasty clog-ups at bay. Apple Certified Consultant Adam Rosen, aka our Mac RX columnist, will show you the four most common causes of slow, bogged-down Macs. Going through Adam’s quick fixes will give your Mac a much-needed tune up in less time than it would take to clear a path from your workbench to the car in your garage.

You’ll also get our top picks from the iTunes store for music, books, movies as well as the apps worth downloading, for reals, plus words of wisdom from an actual Apple Genius.

Comments? Suggestions? Complaints? Email me directly or from the “send” button top right.

Cult of Mac Magazine

Editor’s Letter

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striscia

It’s hard to admit, but I know more about decluttering my closet than I do my computer. The last time I took my MacBook Pro to the Apple Store, I was humbled by the Genius who stumbled upon the virtual equivalent of an overstuffed, rat-infested garage.

It was like something out of one of those hoarding reality shows that I’m fond of because they confer a zen-like simplicity to my messy but-not-enough-to-die-buried-alive-under-belongings: there was a ton of dusty, useless, embarrassing crap clogging up my machine. With one raised eyebrow, he made me feel like a basket case for piles of applications that would never run on my current OS (and they were in the dock, too. The shame!) and a desktop so cluttered with screen shots, empty alias folders and .txt files that my actual desk looks pristine in comparison.

Enter Mac RX, Spring Cleaning Edition to the rescue. Cult of Mac readers know our long-running series on how to fix what ails your Apple device; this week we get a special decluttering take from our vintage expert and Apple Certified Consultant, Adam Rosen.

He’ll tell you what you really need to know about getting better performance from your Mac and why the machine gets clogged up in the first place. Hint: most of us don’t follow the basic tidying procedures we should.

So it’s time for a clean-up session: we’ll get you in, out and have your Mac running faster than it has in months. We stopped just short of Feng Shui for your desktop, but I have an expert for that if you’re interested.

This Week in Cult of Mac Magazine: iMacs Hunt For A Cancer Cure

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Cover design: Rob LeFebvre.
Cover design: Rob LeFebvre.

 

This week in Cult of Mac Magazine: Can iMacs find a cure for cancer?

Right now, thousands of kids across Kentucky are furthering cancer research while they do their schoolwork, thanks to the DataseamGrid.

Cult of Mac publisher Leander Kahney delves into how this massive grid of educational iMacs are churning data to help find a cure for cancer. One starter fact to make you blink: Every week, the grid processes 300 man-years worth of calculations while kids learn about fractions and foreign languages. Brian Gupton, Dataseam’s co-founder and executive director, talked to Cult of Mac about how this game-changing research is proving rich ground for education, employment and research.

Reporter Buster Heine checks out iPhone apps that can harness the processing power of your device while your run or walk your dog — he has found a bunch of great two-fer apps to get you in shape as you do good. We also bring you the best in new books, music and movies from iTunes and what’s worthwhile in the app store, plus our resident Apple genius dishes on whether the grass is greener, workwise, outside the store.

Cult of Mac Magazine

This Week In Cult Of Mac Magazine: Olympics for Cord Cutters

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This week, Cult of Mac Magazine is all about the Olympics.

Whether you’re a cord cutter or just like to slack off at work, our ever-resourceful reviews editor Charlie Sorrel has compiled all the tips you need to watch without a traditional TV – from streaming services to apps and, like any good British expat, he’s also given a thought to beverages – so you can get more Sochi action across all your Apple devices.

The 2014 Winter Olympics may also be the first quantified games in history. Sure, coaches have been standing by with stopwatches and clipboards since, well, some dude sprinted down dusty roads in sandals, probably. But now, there’s an app for that. To find out more about what the teams are using (and how you can improve your form on the slopes) we talked to the people behind some those performance apps.

We’re also featuring the winners of our epic Selfie Olympics contest. But just so you know: you’re all winners in our book!

Cult of Mac Magazine

 

Apps For Perfecting Your Winter Sports Performance

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Have the spectacular goings-on at Sochi got you inspired to get off the couch and pick up your snowboard? Just remember to take your iPhone with you: there are a ton of game-changing apps to get more out of your runs.

Back in the day, slo-mo video analysis and gait analytics were only for the pros, now weekenders can have it, too, along with speed and other stats that can definitely up your game.  Cult of Mac polled some app makers for advice on how to get more out of this winter sports season.

Clear Sky's 10K app.
Clear Sky’s 10K app.

Extreme Sports? Step It Up Before You Go

“One of the frustrating things about extreme sports is that you just can’t do them all the time. As a snowboarder living in Israel, all I get is one week of snowboarding a year, at best,” Benny Shaviv, CEO Clear Sky Apps, maker of fitness apps ranging from 10K forever to Pushups Extreme. Before the winter season, Shaviv runs two t0 three times a week and does strength training. A month before the longed-for vacation he steps it up and says the “impact on my snowboarding has been tremendous.”

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Find Focus Before You Hit The Slopes

“Although meditation can have a spiritual or philosophical aspect to it, I focus on the neurological changes in the attentional system,” says Portenga, a sports and performance psychologist and founder of iPerformancePsychology.  “I use meditation to help train the attentional system without getting into the philosophical aspects. Breathing is similar. This is a crucial skill to manage energy and recovery. It’s surprising how many people don’t breathe efficiently or have breathing patterns that waste energy and can lead to anxious feelings. To handle pressure, a performer must have mastery over their attention and energy.”
That said, Yoda-like mental mastery still can’t make you graceful or expert if you’re a world-class klutz.
“At the most basic level, sport is 100% physical,” Portenga, who has worked with athletes in both the summer and winter Olympics, notes. “If you can’t ski, you can’t ski and no amount of ‘mental toughness’ will cover for that. It’s why you’re not going to see any PhDs in sport psychology at the Olympics. That being said, the brain controls the body, so it’s responsible for how efficiently we develop and how much of what we’ve developed we get out during a performance. You have to develop the physical skills first.”
A screenshot of Ubersense.
Video app Ubersense

Try A Virtual Coach

Ubersense, a free app for video and analysis in sports training, has been working with the USA Bobsled and Skeleton teams before they hit Sochi. Choke is a dirty word in sports, and it tends to happen when experts morph back into newbies when they suddenly become conscious of every move they make. And what about newbies who are already hyper-aware of how exactly how dumb they look?  It all depends on when you decide to shoot, apparently.

“We’ve heard from some people that they do not look to record or analyze footage during a game or round of golf as gets them thinking too much and they prefer to record and analyze during practice instead,” says Alex Pedicini, Ubersense community manager. “While some people may be a little embarrassed about the way they look on film, we’ve found that people who are serious about improving their performance and technique want the visual feedback.”
The app can record and analyze over 30 sports, compare your efforts to the pros and devise coaching plans. (The fearless can even share their videos — over various social media channels).
Pedicini says there is a ton to learn from watching and analyzing yourself on video, if you can get past the cringe factor.
“Slow-motion and video analysis in general was expensive and only available to elite level coaches and athletes. Now, with the rise of mobile devices and the increasingly high quality of the cameras it’s possible to do pretty much all the analysis you need from your phone or tablet,” he says.

If You Don’t Want To End Up On The Couch, Watch Your Weekend

Apps are great for motivation and charting progress, but there are some pitfalls to working with them. “People who don’t run regularly commonly try to go too hard too soon,” says Shaviv of Clear Sky Apps. “This means that someone who has not run for years might go out there and try to do a 20-minute straight run (and will feel pretty bad doing it). Then, in an effort to accelerate and get in shape fast – they might take a shot at running almost every day… which will only make it worse.”

The lesson? Weekend warriors will end up on the sidelines.

“Your body needs natural progression and time to heal. Using a pre-set program that slowly progresses is the way to go. We advise everyone to start slow, and make sure to mind the rest days. They are just as important as the running days – its during that time that your muscles build up and improve,” Shaviv notes.

Listen To Your Body, Not the Tech

Let’s say you’ve been faithful to wearing a heart rate monitor and an app, to track your progress all fall. Fitness by the numbers can be problematic, though.

“The biggest pitfall of training with tech is relying on it too much,” says Kate Billerbeck of NuMetrex, which makes futuristic heart rate monitor clothes and gear. “People tend to look at the stats in isolation – they think something like ‘oh, well I’ve had really steady results the past couple of days, so I can push myself to the limit today.’ ”

The opposite happens when weekend athletes let the numbers get them down. Billerbeck says that it’s easy to get discouraged if you’re not seeing the progress you expected.

“It’s important to remember why you started self-monitoring in the first place – to get to know your body better.  Sometimes it can be beneficial to take a step back and get some perspective – take a day off if you’re feeling tired or think about how much better you feel about yourself when you get a good workout in – regardless of whether or not your progress shows up on the screen.”

Digifit apps Digifit apps.

Simplify, Simplify, Simplify

One final word to the quantified fitness aficionados: keep an eye on your goals and your gadgets if you want to go long.

“(People forget) they need to reassess their fitness level and workout plan as their fitness level improves to maximize workout efforts.” says Dean Hovey, CEO of fitness app purveyor Digifit.  Hovey advises users to reassess their fitness level and cardiovascular strength every few months. “This will help avoid plateaus, promote safer workouts and ultimately help the user reach their goal faster.”

Other speed bumps on the road to maximum fitness include too much data from too many disparate sources, Hovey says.

“With so many fitness, health, weight management and calorie counting tech tools these days, many people become overwhelmed and may have personal data for different goals stored in multiple accounts or on multiple devices,” he says.

“To fix this problem, link accounts to gather data in one place or find a wearable tech tool that gathers data across multiple areas.”

One final note of caution: if you’ve gone digital with your training, don’t drain your willpower because of the batteries.

“Get in the habit of charging your devices on the way to the gym in your car, keep extra chargers in your gym bag and take a long a portable device for those unexpected low battery alerts,” Hovey notes.

Editor’s Letter

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striscia

The 2014 Winter Olympics may be the first quantified games in history. Sure, coaches have been standing by with stopwatches and clipboards since, well, some dude sprinted down dusty roads in sandals, probably. But now, there’s an app for that.

Elite athletes are using apps to keep them on top of their game – physically and mentally. We talked to Steve Portenga, who has worked with winter and summer Olympians, and created iPerformancePsychology to help give the rest of us the winning mindset. He admits there’s less to be done about your hopeless snowplow on the bunny slope, but more on that in the story.

I’m excited about these apps, and that’s saying a lot. There are only two times you’ll find me interested in sports: the Olympics and the World Cup. Even then, it’s usually not so much the sport that captivates me — though the winter games have the edge when it comes to mesmerizing sequins — it’s the epic international battles played out in the name of gymnastics or soccer.

When the question of who lands on the podium speaks to age-old predilections rather than strictly by GDP, things get interesting. Norway, for example, is a nation of just five million souls but is expected to make mammoth countries like the U.S. eat ice dust in Sochi. Jamaica’s bobsled team, which qualified for the first time since 2002, is coming to Russia courtesy an international crowdfunding campaign. I plan to re-arrange my schedule to view all of their matches. And what about host country Russia? Can pumping millions into sports bring back the glory days, especially after the embarrassing showing in Vancouver? The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat take on a larger meaning when countries go for for the gold.

Once again, I’ll be watching exclusively on my MacBook Pro, iPhone or iPad. (When I moved back to San Francisco from Milan with exactly four boxes, buying a set never became a priority.) Watching sports this way brings interesting aspects to viewing not limited to the tiny screen and intermittent buffering. For instance, I ended up watching the last World Cup entirely in Spanish, which definitely has an edge over the more buttoned-down English-language commentary. Note to U.S. broadcasters: you really need to hire a guy to give rat-a-tat-tat play-by-play climaxing in “GOOOOOOOOOOLLLLL!” People would watch soccer, then.

Fortunately, this time around our own Charlie Sorrel has chimed in with all the tips you need to watch without a traditional TV. And we’re off, for 18 days of sport!

This Week In Cult of Mac Magazine: Smart Driving With Apps

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Cover design: Rob LeFebvre.
Cover design: Rob LeFebvre.

This week in Cult of Mac Magazine: drive smarter, with a little help from the app store.

Your iPhone. Great apps. Your car. What could be better? Well, maybe an Apple-designed  driving system.

We’re all eagerly awaiting for release of iOS 7 In the Car, you know, what Apple is calling the “best passenger ever.” (We bet it won’t need to pull over for the pit stop. Or tell you to stop and ask for directions, either.)

Until then, you may find yourself like our games editor Rob LeFebvre with a clunker that could use a bit of future-proofing. Rob discovers out the joys – and limits – of what you can do with about $20 and the best the iTunes store has to offer. Turns out, your old ride may be more of a smart car than you think. The mag also brings you the best from the apps store, books, movies and music in iTunes plus advice from an actual Apple retail Genius.

As always, if you hit any speed bumps with the app, please write to me directly or hit the “send” tab top right. We’ll fix it!

Cult of Mac Magazine

Editor’s Letter

By

striscia

You never go anywhere without your iPhone. But instead of having it with you (always!) in the car, what if it ran your car?

That future may only be a few months away, when the iOS in the car is expected to go come out of the gate with the release of iOS 7.1. iPhone aficionados have been expecting it since at least last summer, when the first screens were leaked. There are a few ways Apple’s entry into the market will disrupt the industry — leading to a pile-up of failed ventures.

The car industry has increasingly relied on tech to sell vehicles in a saturated market. However, the folks who brought us ABS brakes and the four-wheel drive aren’t always the best people to engineer what drivers want (or need!) when it comes to computers on board. Many of these systems are complicated and distract drivers more than help.

Not one of these systems has become industry standard. Most drivers fiddle a bit with the parking system, then use their phones or maybe a GPS system like Garmin as add-ons. It’s rumored that Apple has made agreements with major car makers to get its system into vehicles — if so a whole segment of the proudly “I’m a PC” market will find itself de facto “Macs.” This will inevitably stall sales of smartphones by Samsung and Google, who will be basically locked out of the place most Americans spend a significant portion of their day.

What about app makers? Here the future is even less clear. There are thousands of apps in iTunes — and thousands of indie developers and startups behind them — targeted to the auto market. Apps to help you find parking, then find your car in parking lots, avoid speed traps and run diagnostics on fuel usage, etc. Apple’s in-car system will make all those apps suddenly last year’s model. For 30 years, Apple’s has focused appeal on early adopters; people with older phones and older cars will feel sorely left behind as app makers scramble to update and integrate with the new system.

The last industry Apple will leave in the dust are GPS products like Garmin and TomTom, though these have already been largely left in the dust by our smartphones. Suburban navigators see no need to spend $200 on map updates when they can easily get from Point A to Point B using smartphones with apps like MapQuest that also update them on traffic conditions and provide peer-to-peer instant updates.

Apple’s entry into the car market will be welcomed by most — drivers, I mean. A clean, simple interface that is easy to use might be one way to curb the deadly distraction that plagues our highways as people try to text, talk or answer emails while stuck in traffic. Reading a manual on the road isn’t conducive to safety, which is what some of the more clunky systems seem to require in their present incarnation.

With Apple at the wheel, we can imagine a time when finding an alternate route in a Friday afternoon snarl is as easy as saying: “Siri, get me outta here!”

Varidesk Gets You Standing, Won’t Break The Bank [Review]

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Varidesk

Cult of Mac has long had a thing for standup desks – for years, publisher Leander Kahney has written posts great and small at an Ikea kitchen table propped up on canisters. His DIY version outlines the basic problem: a desk where you can stand up is useful, but they tend to be pricey.

We’ve reviewed NewHeights, for example, which will set you back over $1,300, so we were eager to try an option with variable height that didn’t break the bank.

PRODUCT by Varidesk
Category: Standing desk
Price: $275

Enter the Varidesk.

This Week In Cult of Mac Magazine: Celebrating The Mac

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Mac 30
@Susan Kare. Her four sketches for the Cult of Mac Magazine cover. Which one do you prefer?

This week, we’re all about the Mac. Cult of Mac Magazine fetes the 30 year anniversary of the Macintosh, arguably the first Apple product to gain a large (dare we say cult?) following.

To do it right, we’ve got an exclusive cover created by Mac icon designer Susan Kare; the final version you’ll find in Newsstand was picked from the four sketches above by Cult of Mac readers who voted on Twitter and Facebook.

The issue focuses on the impact of the Mac and includes a Q&A by Cult of Mac publisher Leander Kahney with Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki plus recollections straight from the 80s of Macworld founder Dave Bunnell. Along with the birthday celebrations, we’ll also feature our weekly picks from iTunes and the App store along with advice from an actual Apple store Genius.

This week also marks the debut of latest version of our app, brought to you by the smarties over at XOXCO using Packagr, a multi-platform digital publishing tool. We think it’s pretty great. But if you run into any problems downloading the mag, email me directly or hit the “send” tab top right and we’ll sort it out for ‘ya.

Cult of Mac Magazine

 

This Week in Cult of Mac Magazine: Apple Gallops Into China

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Cover: Rob LeFebvre.
Cover: Rob LeFebvre.

This week, Cult of Mac Magazine explores how Apple will reboot China, and why you, the aficionado, should care.

2014 is the year of the horse: seen as an auspicious symbol for swift success, it bodes well for Apple. The Cupertino company launches its deal with China mobile around the same time as the year changes over, a deal Tim Cook called a “watershed” moment.

Author and reporter Luke Dormehl delves into the factors that will shift Apple’s strategy there as it hopes to reach over 700 million potential fanatics and why this year we may begin to see the transition into “designed in California, built for Asia.” Hong-Kong based tech reporter Truman Au takes a look at local iPhone culture and why the gold iPhone is the choice of device – and matching cars, bags and shoes — for the country’s new rich.

As always, we’ll have the best in new apps, music, books and movies plus answers to your most pressing Apple-related questions from an actual Genius.

Cult of Mac Magazine

 

This Week In Cult of Mac Magazine: The Best of CES

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CES 2014 FINAL

This week, Cult of Mac Magazine takes you to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, CES.

Our intrepid writers — Leander Kahney, Traci Dauphin, Alex Heath, Buster Heine, Eli Milchman and Erfon Elijah — tested smart toothbrushes, electric bikes and heat-sensing iPhone cases.

All while balancing cocktails!

Our CES roundup brings you the best of what was on show in Vegas so you know which gadgets to look forward to in the spring.

As always, we’ve also got the best in new apps, music, books and movies on iTunes, plus the inside scoop from a real Apple Genius on what goes on behind the slick facade of the retail stores.

Cult of Mac Magazine

This Week In Cult Of Mac Magazine: Shaping Up Your iFitness Routine

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Cover design: Rob LeFebvre.
Cover design: Rob LeFebvre.

Cult of Mac Magazine wants to help you get it together in 2014: you are probably already using your iPhone, iPad and Mac to track the bejesus out of your habits, right? We’re calling it iFitness (*yeah, I know!) because Apple devices have kickstarted a new way of thinking about and monitoring everything we do.

But maybe in between logging your couch to 5K you’ve discovered that your iPhone isn’t always the best running partner — or that it still can’t kick you out that line for the cronuts.

Cult of Mac talked to a bunch of fitness experts, including personal trainers, on how to make sure your iPhone or iPad and those apps you love can help you reach goals you’ve set yourself for this new year and lessen the more painful fitness fails.

Reporter Sarah Stirland also examines the growing body of health-related apps and discovers what’s on the horizon for this burgeoning business and why doctors are keen on keeping track of patients this way.

Cult of Mac Magazine

Quantify This: How To Avoid Fitness Fails

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CC-licensed, thanks Crossfitpaleofitness on Flickr.
CC-licensed, thanks Crossfitpaleofitness on Flickr.

There are many pitfalls on the road to building abs at least strong enough to support your desk job and lung capacity to sing through your next epic road trip. To get there, you plan on using your omnipresent iPhone and Mac plus a tracking device like Jawbone or Fitbit and a bunch of apps.

Before you dive in, Cult of Mac polled a number of fitness experts to find out how you can avoid the fitness fails that gadget-happy folks commit most often: it turns out that over relying on apps, trackers and yourself may leave you flat.

Move That Goal Post

It’s about as well-worn concept as an obsessive marathoner’s favorite shoes: goals matter. Focusing on the gadgets (personally, I live for having another manual to read!) instead of the outcome is an easy way to get your desire for six-pack abs lost in the shuffle.

“For technology to be effective you need to start with a strong, well-thought goal(s), and determine your tactics to achieve that goal,” says Michael Rucker, director of digital products at Club One Fitness in San Francisco.

“This might seem straightforward, but I cannot tell you how many indoor cyclists who purchase a popular accelerometer like a Fitbit or Jawbone UP and then quickly become frustrated because given their fitness affinity they would have been better off with a heart rate sensor (with a corresponding appropriate algorithm) for calorie tracking.” Rucker declares himself “device agnostic” but says he’s currently a fan of easy-to-use Moves app.

How to make sure you don’t get left on the wayside with your gadgets gathering dust? “Pair the right tech with well thought-out goals and this creates a powerful combination akin to giving a carpenter the perfect hammer, opposed to a plumbing wrench,” Rucker says.

CC-licensed, thanks mike_mccormick on Flickr.
CC-licensed, thanks mike_mccormick on Flickr.

Why That Tracker Is All Washed Up

If you’re getting started (or getting started again) on a quantified self kick, it’s also good to think about which device will go the long haul for you. Some people will prefer a wristband, others a tiny tracker, says John La Puma MD, but each comes with pros and cons.

“In the first case you tend to stop wearing it after a few weeks, in the second case people sometimes forget the tracker in their pocket and it ends up in the washing machine,” La Puma, who is also the author of “Refuel: A 24-Day Eating Plan to Boost Testosterone, Lose the Gut and Pump Up Strength and Stamina, Naturally,”  told Cult of Mac.  As a physician who specializes in fitness, La Puma says losing the tracker is the most common mistake he sees. “They fall into the oven, come off while
running, or stay on a previous pair of pants,” he says.

The other speed bump on the way to tracking your health? Not taking advantage of wireless syncing. “Getting your numbers delivered to you is another way of getting a nudge to succeed,” La Puma says.

Time After Time

Once you’re setup with a tracking system, give it some time. The initial glow of seeing your habits may wear off quickly once you see you’re logging in as many steps as a poodle with a hip replacement but eating like an Olympian power lifter.

“The key mistake people make is not using them consistently, says Jenn Mitchell, a trainer and the force behind comebackmomma.com. “The best way to track trends with eating, activity and sleep is to stick with it for at least a month. The use of these tools need to become a habit.”

Her favorites? Get started with My Fitness Pal, a free app for tracking food intake as well as activity with a large following and built-in community. “I find that clients who can make a connection with others really find success using at app like this.

If the time crunch is limiting your workouts, try Interval Timer by Deltaworks. “You can get a great cardio workout in as little as 15 minutes with a good interval program. I recommend compound movements that use multiple body parts like burpees for best result,” she adds.

Mitchell also suggests getting family and friends involved in a “friendly competition” as of keeping yourself on track.

Stop Fudging Your Calorie Counts

Tracking your calories is a good way to keep your intake in line with your goals, but there are a few costly pitfalls you can take. Not all apps are created equal, says personal trainer Julian Hayes II who runs 206fitness.

“Some common mistakes people make with fitness apps is underestimating how much food they are eating when it comes to food tracking apps such as myfitnesspal.com and loseit.com,” Hayes says. “When this happens, they throw off their calorie numbers and, in turn, overeat for the day.”

Hayes recommends Fitbit, because in addition to accurate food tracking clients also can also monitor sleep quality – which may explain some of those late-afternoon sugar attacks. If you’re working with a trainer, Fitbit also helps them keep an eye on what you’re eating to bolster accountability. Going solo? Try social fitness network Fitocracy, he says, where you get virtual cheer leading from the community.

Don’t Keep It To Yourself

It may feel better to keep your 15-minute mile to yourself, especially in early days as you slouch from couch to 5K. While you may never want to broadcast your risible fitness levels to the world, be smart and sharing them with someone who will support your goals.

“People sometimes keep their numbers to themselves: they don’t have to go up on Facebook or Instagram, but they do need to be shared with someone who can help you evaluate and improve them,” says physician La Puma.

Take The Old To the New

CC-licensed, thanks ToddMorris on Flickr.
CC-licensed, thanks ToddMorris on Flickr.

If your habits are already on track, don’t bore yourself out of a good thing. Runners, especially, are prone to getting into a groove that quickly becomes a rut. New shoes, a new route and new training can help break things up.

“It’s easy to get bored of the same old scenery if you run the same loop every time you go for a run. Varying your running route keeps things interesting, motivating and challenging,” says personal trainer Justin Hepner.  Hepner also advocates buying some new kicks to start the year off right, “a new pair of running shoes is an invitation to run. Seeing them will remind you of your resolution. It’s an investment in your fitness.”

And mix it up, he adds, if you don’t have variety in your routine, it’s a non-starter in the long run. “Try mixing in some interval training or pace training. Add some weight or strength training and/or some stretching or yoga. It will make you a better runner.”

Overtrack at Your Own Risk

Many of the experts Cult of Mac polled said that tracking is good, but over tracking is risky. It can quickly spiral into focusing on the wrong things or over focusing on some unobtainable ideal.

“One of the potential hazards that really scares me is when people are influenced to change their original vision of success in unhealthy ways because of the limits of the technology being used,” says Rucker of Club One Fitness.

Rucker recalls working on a biometric tracking case study where an experience athlete started “obsessing” over weight when given a wireless scale.

“Also, many of the algorithms in activity tracking technology are initially standardized for general populations,” he notes. “People who begin self-experimentation need to remember they’re an n of 1 and should be wary of general baselines and instead create their own baselines calibrated to the technology they’re using.”

This Week In Cult Of Mac Magazine: Year in Review

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This week, Cult of Mac Magazine looks back on 2013 with our Year in Review issue.

Apple has once again overturned a few carts and made mincemeat of our best predictions for where the Cupertino company is heading next.

In addition to a rollicking review of the best — and weirdest — news, apps, games, rumors and the like, Cult of Mac’s resident gadfly Mike Elgan opines on what Apple will bring us in 2014.

Elgan also weighs in on whether those iWatches or other gadgets (iGlasses? Yeah or Nay?) will be anything we actually want. Reporter Alex Heath takes a look at Apple’s bumper crop of acquisitions, a record this year, as a signpost of what the new year may bring.

As always, we bring you the best in apps, games, movies and books out of all the stuff our staffers have watched, played with and read this year — but only the stuff that doesn’t suck.

Cult of Mac Magazine: Year in Review.

 

This Week In Cult of Mac Magazine: Setting up Your New iPhone or iPad The Right Way

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Unboxingday
Cover design: Rob LeFebvre

Cult of Mac Magazine’s Unboxing Issue is a super-sized, mega edition packed full of good advice for your new device, whether you’re giving or getting.

We’ve got guides on how to set up your brand new iPhone and iPad, what apps and games you need as well as the accessories Cult of Mac reviewers won’t leave home without.

Jony Ive Makes WSJ’s ‘Books of The Year’ List

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It’s the time of the year for lists: naughty, nice, best of, trends, Thirteen Surprising Bathroom Habits Of Tech Innovators. Stuff like that.

All those listicles can make your eyes water, even though you can’t stop yourself from clicking through to Ten Loudest Grunters in Women’s Tennis, I know I can’t.

But it was with great pleasure that I spotted Cult of Mac publisher Leander Kahney’s Jony Ive made it into the venerable Wall Street Journal’s Books of the Year section.

This Week In Cult of Mac Magazine: Tech & Compassion

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Cover design: Rob LeFebvre.
Cover design: Rob LeFebvre.

Compassion and Tech go hand in hand in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine.

We’re all supposed to be better people around the holidays. Unless we happen to be a hackathon dude who fires off a Facebook rant about how San Francisco is filled with human trash. 

And, sure, you can delete that stupid stuff. But that same technology that enabled you to quickly air your most callous, thoughtless opinion won’t take it back that easily. His subsequent apology did little to smother the flames about how tech needs better PR to convince the world we aren’t the philosophical disciples of Charles Montgomery Burns.

That’s why Facebook is considering a compassion button – so in this case you could sympathize with your hackathon pal for his complete lack of empathy for the homeless? – for example.

This week, Cult of Mac reports from the front line of digital companies and nonprofits with heart and soul from Stanford’s inaugural Technology and Compassion Conference.  The idea behind it is to bring things like mood trackers and compassion training to our iPhones, so we act like jerks a little less. And the world will thus becomes a better place…

We also bring you the best new books, music and movies in iTunes and apps in the store as well as the inside scoop from the behind the counter with our Ask a Genius Column. ‘Cause we’re generous like that.

Cult of Mac Magazine in iTunes.

Why Compassion Goes Hand In Hand With Tech

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Stickers from the first Compassion and Tech Conference from Dharma Comics.
Stickers by Dharma Comics given out at the first Compassion and Tech Conference.

Marc Brackett wants to put a Mood Meter on every smartphone. That way, in addition to helping us get through our daily lives, iPhones can make us more attuned to why and when we feel cheerful, tired or annoyed.

The director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence has been working with a team from HopeLab on an app with a simple interface where users rate their energy and pleasantness using four colors and a five-point scale.

He tested it out on conference goers Stanford’s first ever Technology and Compassion conference, organized by the Center for Compassion And Altruism Research And Education. Asking for a show of hands, most participants noted they were somewhere in the green (pleasant) perhaps creeping up towards yellow (high energy).

Mood Meter 2SM3If you’re at all like New Yorker Brackett, you’ll frequently find yourself in the red. And that’s a not necessarily a bad thing.

“I like being angry. It drives me to change education policy,” Brackett said. His presentation substituted a scheduled one about empathy and video games.

Despite the pinch hit, his talk resonated strongly with participants and echoed several of the ideas presented in the projects presented in a later competition.

“I have come to understand that students who are more emotionally confident tend to be strong language learners,” Angela Weikel, Spanish teacher and world languages department chair of San Domenico School in Marin County told Cult of Mac. “So if I can bolster students’ self-esteem through scientific strategies, they are more likely to enjoy learning Spanish and will connect with the culture.” She says she plans to implement Brackett’s ideas to help students’ develop a richer vocabulary and become more aware of their feelings.
Speaking with Brackett afterwards, I wondered whether my own first reaction — which usually involves some gradation of annoyed (irritated, peeved, irated) would move into another realm through diligent tracking. “Not really, but that’s all right. To a certain extent if you can name it, you can tame it. But compassion for all of your states is a better goal.”

Brackett recounted his own struggle with mood states, realizing he doesn’t like to be in the yellow (high energy, high pleasantness) after experimenting with it in a Crossfit class.

“I’m not pumped like the trainer, or the rest of the guys. I’m never going to be like that. I’m a red or blue kind of guy.”

The app (digital mood ring 2.o?) is expected to be available for public consumption by April 2014, if not sooner, in Android and iOS versions. It’ll face competition from dozens of mood tracking apps on the market – ranging from MoodyMe to The National Center for Telehealth & Technology’s T2 Mood Tracker.

While many of the ideas presented during the conference weren’t new — at least if you’ve been to a few meet-ups or tech accelerator showcases in the Bay Area — it comes at a time when the tech boom is seen as an antagonistic force rather than a one that helps change society change for the better.

When Your iPhone Becomes A Compassion Trainer

You’re going about your business on a regular workday when a text message pops up on your iPhone from an anonymous number: “Stop texting me you jerk!”

How would you answer?

If you participated in a study from the University of Michigan about empathy, there are higher chances you might text something back like “Sorry you’re having a bad day! I think you’ve got the wrong number.”

Sara Konrath, an assistant research professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, says the results of the study that used texting prompts to “train” people in compassion were not conclusive, but the follow-up done six months after the conclusion of the study with the potentially hackle-raising text shows that our phones may help smooth out the rougher edges of our personalities.

“Men in particular less likely to agree that aggression was a good thing,” Konrath said. “It increases pro-social behavior, but not necessarily empathy.”

As part of the texting research, part of the John Templeton Foundation’s Character Project, participants thumbed their way through exercises designed to test for empathy reactions. Six times a day, they reported mood, feelings of connectedness, the number of people interacted with since the last text message and several other factors. Some were prompted to text messages that were empathy boosters (“send a nice text to someone close, try to make them feel loved”) while others were asked to reflect on someone they had trouble getting along with.

Konrath says that while empathy is heritable to an extent, she likens it to a muscle we can all work on strengthening. Conference goers found the results intriguing. “I can imagine structuring peer review around this concept and helping my students approach each other’s work more constructively, with greater focus on how they can become compassionate responders,” said Alyssa J. O’Brien a lecturer in Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford.

Next up for Konrath? Trying to compare face-to-face empathy with text messages and possibly work on an app. Because we’re all different IRL.

My App Is More Altruistic Than Yours!

During the second half of the one-day conference, apps in the empathy space killed each other with kindness in a friendly competition. (Several of the speakers gave a nod to the other presenters and their ideas, opening the doors for collaboration once the gloves were off.) The 10 finalists each got a chance to tell judges and conference goers, who could vote by text message, why their idea would extend the reach of compassion with tech.

More Mood Tracking: personal mindfulness training with contest finalist Dara.
More Mood Tracking: personal mindfulness training with contest finalist Dara.

High school senior Sam Reiss was a shoe-in for first place, with a project that brings pen pals to the generation that grew up with Skype. Dubbed X-Change the World, its goals include “enhancing the cultural and global spectrum of youth throughout the world, improving the level of conversational English of our participants and building cross-cultural bridges that lead to greater global curiosity and compassion.”

The platform pairs students from the U.S. with teens in countries including Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Tanzania and Kenya in a virtual classroom. The project, which already won second place in a national youth service challenge, walked off with the $10,000 prize. Two other projects won $5,000 each plus a consultation with a a growth capital fund exec and a chance to meet the Dalai Lama. They included a taxi game called Compassion in Motion and wellness tracker SeekChange, which includes Siri-like component called Dara to track your moods and activities.

Editor’s Letter

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striscia

If you’ve ever hesitated over whether to “like” the status update about your cousin’s fractured leg or dearly departed pug, you get that technology can be awkward at times.

Yet thanks to our iPhones, we carry around a device that allows us to help find the way, locate a first responder, donate to disaster victims and reach-out-and-touch someone in a thousand ways that boy scouts of yesteryear could only dream about.

Do you need a ride? A place to sleep? Want my leftovers? Even in more pedestrian situations, we’re helping each other more thanks to our phones – as you might remember from our issue focused on how apps are breaking down social barriers.

Maybe your gran told you to never talk to strangers, but now you’re couch surfing, carpooling and maybe even getting free food from them thanks to apps. And you have no intention of going back to those dark “stranger danger” days.

Yet, the connection between acting compassionately and technology isn’t so apparent. Every time we zone out playing games during that tedious daily commute, let an iPad babysit our kids, send a scathing tweet or shut off someone’s Facebook statuses, we are going in another direction. Definitely not the kind of direction that earns you a merit badge.

So much so, that tech and compassion might strike you as an “oxymoron,” as Sona Mehring the CEO at Caring Bridge told a recent audience of about 350 educators and tech experts, telling the story of the nonprofit she started in 1997 to help two friends with a premature baby keep friends and family in the know.

She wasn’t preaching to the converted at Stanford’s inaugural Technology and Compassion Conference. Rather, she was connecting the dots for a crowd of about 350 — many of them educators — who were either initially as skeptical as she was or unsure where the good could be found in devices that are more frequently in the news for bringing out the worst in people.

After all, the benefits hyped from “killer apps” are rarely their saintly virtues.

But it seems an arbitrary distinction: when talking broadly about technology, it’s not inherently good or bad. Like any other tool, it depends on what you do with it. Use your hammer for Habitat for Humanity, it’s all good. Hit your co-worker with it bang-bang Maxwell style, and the hammer of justice will come find you.

As heavy technology users — or developers — we have a new mission. It’s to spread this idea that even if the old news adage if “it bleeds it leads” still holds up in pixels, tech is not inherently cold, inhumane, or even evil.

Read on for more about how companies and nonprofits are working to expand the reach of tech with heart and soul.