Tech site H-Online has an interesting story today, quoting security expert Charlie Miller about his forthcoming talk at the CanSecWest conference next week.
He says OS X is full of security holes. There are lots more than in Windows, he claims.
And yet: OS X is a safer system to use. Why? Because, in the words [...]
If ever you needed a sign that Apple was a different kind of technology company, this is it.
What other computer manufacturer would remove its top-selling, hype-inducing, industry-altering new product from the prime spot on its website home page, and replace it with an obituary to an investor?
This is one of those “Here’s to the [...]
Fake Steve creator Dan Lyons just signed a deal to bring Steve Jobs to another small screen near you.
The half-hour series called “iCon” is billed by the presser as “a savage satire centering on a fictional Silicon Valley CEO whose ego is a study in power and greed.”
Making sure the barbs prick will be the [...]
Way back in 1991, just as Apple was transitioning from 68k to PowerPC chips, the braniacs at Xerox PARC were predicting it’s entire iPod, iPhone and iPad strategy. And next up for the iPad is a blackboard-sized device.
Nearly 20 years ago, just as personal desktop computers were taking off, researchers at Xerox started thinking about [...]
Full category list for displayed posts: Cameras, Interviews, iPhone 3G S, video
6:22 pm, March 10th, 2010, Eli Milchman
It’s not like director Tom De Nolf doesn’t have 35mm film cameras and a bunch of other video-making tech at his disposal; no, De Nolf was so surprised by the video capability of his recently purchased 3GS that he chose to shoot the above music video using just three iPhones.
Posted by Eli Milchman in Cameras, Interviews, iPhone 3G S, video | 15 Comments »
2:42 pm, March 4th, 2010, Craig Grannell
One of the greatest things about App Store games is that they’ve broken the seemingly relentless escalation of costs for developers and price-increases for end users. In a sense, many of the games on the store return us to the halcyon days of 8-bit games—playable, quickfire efforts that innovated and packed in plenty of personality.
Over at creature24.com, three guys are about to take this idea to the extreme, taking a skeleton idea for an iPhone game through to App Store submission—all in just 24 hours. Progress will be shown live on the website on March 6, starting at 9:00am EST, and the trio of devs say comments from visitors might even be integrated into the game. I caught up with one of the three crazy game creators, Binary Hammer’s Bob Koon, to find out more. Read the rest of this post »
Posted by Craig Grannell in Gaming, Interviews, News, Top stories, iPhone Apps | 1 Comment »
10:00 am, February 26th, 2010, Craig Grannell
I’m a long-time fan of territory games. Civilization sucked me in on the Amiga and its sequel appealed on the Mac. For quicker games in a similar vein, various Risk clones for the Mac (such as iConquer) once took up numerous tiny chunks of my day. But when I discovered Galcon for iPhone, the others vanished. Here was a crazy real-time Risk/stripped-down Civ, with brutally fast gameplay and land-grabbing. In single-player mode, it was compelling, and against online opposition, a joy.
Creator Phil Hassey announced this week Galcon Fusion for desktop platforms. A semi-sequel to Classic Galcon and incorporating modes and ideas from Galcon Labs for iPhone, Galcon Fusion is available for $9.99 from galcon.com.
I caught up with Phil to find out more about his game, cross-platform development, and why iPhone Galcon fans should take a risk on the desktop game. Read the rest of this post »
Posted by Craig Grannell in Gaming, Interviews, News, Top stories | 3 Comments »
12:57 pm, February 2nd, 2010, Nicole Martinelli
UPDATE: iMussolini Developer Luigi Marino told Cult of Mac that he discovered the lawsuit for copyright infringement by reading our story yesterday. Marino contacted the Italian state film archives, Istituto Luce, for clarifications about the video material he used from Mussolini’s speeches and they asked him to remove the app from the store to avoid a legal battle. Marino tells us he requested to pull the app and expects it to be gone from the iTunes store by 1 p.m. (CET).
UPDATE 2: iMussolini is gone. The competing Mussolini app — Mussolini’s historical speeches- – is, however, still available.
An iPhone app of Benito Mussolini’s speeches is the second-highest paid app in the Italian iTunes store a week after launching despite criticism for giving voice to Il Duce’s diehard fans and claims over copyright violations.
iMussolini, a mobile compendium of fascism, features 100 complete speeches, plus 20 audio and video clips for €0.79 (it’s also available in the US iTunes store for $0.99, in Italian only) — without any kind of political commentary.
At about 1,000 downloads a day, iMussolini is more popular in Italy than Shazam and games like Ice Age and Dracula: the Path of the Dragon.
Comments by readers on iPhoneitalia, which broke the story, included enough pro-Mussolini sentiment “Duce! Duce! Duce!” and slogans (“Boia chi molla!”) to prompt complaints to the iTunes store that the app violates Italy’s 1952 Scelba law, which formally abolished fascism. The New York-based American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants also slammed Apple over the app.
Today, the Italian state film archives, Istituto Luce, announced it will sue the developer for using archival clips and asked Apple to remove the application. At this writing, the app is still available.
iMussolini is the handiwork of 25-year-old Luigi Marino, who picked up an iPhone for the first time about six months ago and made the app in his spare time.
Cult of Mac spoke to Marino about why iMussolini is an excercise in free enterprise, getting the app approved and why his next app may feature Gandhi.
CoM: How did you start programming for iPhones?
Luigi Marino: I’ve been programming Java and C++ since high school, in July 2009 I bought my first iPhone and in November 2009 in my first MacBook. Programming for it is more of a passion than anything else. (NDR: Marino owns and runs an unrelated company). In my free time, I also blog for an iPhone website called dev app.
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in Interviews, News, Top stories, iPhone, iPhone Apps | 10 Comments »
5:53 pm, January 28th, 2010, Giles Turnbull
Enough of my dumb opinions. I thought it would be interesting to find out what some Mac and iPhone developers make of the iPad. What are their first impressions? What do they intend to make for the iPad platform? Do they have any concerns?
I got in touch with a whole bunch of developer contacts and asked them if they’d like to share their thoughts with you, the Cult readers.
Here are the replies I got.
Ken Case of OmniGroup revealed that the company is working on iPad versions of apps like OmniFocus and OmniGraffle:
“We’re really excited about Apple’s iPad, and are looking forward to updating OmniFocus to take advantage of the larger screen size. We’re also looking at creating iPad adaptations of several of our other productivity apps, such as OmniGraffle.”
Manton Reece of Riverfold Software (maker of Clipstart and Wii Transfer):
“I was so annoyed with the closed nature of the App Store that I stopped developing for the iPhone. The iPad will still have those frustrations, but the large screen opens up a whole new class of applications. It’s impossible to resist.”
Mark Bernstein of Eastgate Systems (maker of Tinderbox):
“The iPad announcement leaves many things unclear. Does iWork depend on private APIs, or will developers be able to write first-class applications? Will individual books be subject the the approval process — leaving 40 overworked Apple employees the additional task of approving or rejecting books an magazines?
“Since 1982, Eastgate’s been publishing original hypertext fiction and nonfiction. These works — many of which are now studied in universities throughout the world — can’t be printed and can’t be simulated in ePub. But, if we bring them to iPad, would that be vetoed as duplicating the built-in book functionality?
“In short, the app store is a source of grave concern for software developers. That said, the iPad is the most exciting personal computing development for a decade. It will transform our notion of computing and redefine the idea of the information appliance.”
Posted by Giles Turnbull in Interviews, News, Opinions, Tablet, iPad | 11 Comments »
1:06 pm, January 21st, 2010, Nicole Martinelli
An engraved Mac with matching case. @Joe Mansfield.
Joe Mansfield, whose trade is laser customizing books, engraved 550 MacBook Pros for the University of Oregon’s new Center for Student Athletes.
A custom version of the university’s “O” logo was also etched into entry mats, lockers and laptop cases to great effect. Though computers are the backbones of study centers, they usually end up looking out of place, here they’re an integral part of the decor.
The only problem: who wants to hit the field or gym when you can hang out at the “Taj Mahal of academic services?”
Cult of Mac talked to engraver extraordinaire Mansfield about how he got started, an upcoming iPhone case and the weirdest thing he’s ever been asked to etch. Read the rest of this post »
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in Interviews, News | 2 Comments »
3:06 pm, January 18th, 2010, Craig Grannell
Since late 2008, John Kooistra has been masterminding an intergalactic war—inside your iPhone. The reds and blues have been engaged in a deadly struggle, as evidenced in twist-based shooter Blue Defense and its more involved sequel Blue Attack.
Red Conquest is John’s most advanced and innovative game yet, a complex, exciting RTS that takes full advantage of Apple’s hardware. Cult of Mac interviewed John about how he got into iPhone games development and how the latest game in the red/blue saga came to be. Read the rest of this post »
Posted by Craig Grannell in Gaming, Interviews, News, Top stories, iPhone Apps | No Comments »
7:41 am, January 15th, 2010, Craig Grannell
Tabs in Finder, courtesy of TotalFinder
Please note: TotalFinder is alpha software that integrates with Finder. Run it at your own risk and ensure you back up your system before installing it. Read the rest of this post »
Posted by Craig Grannell in Interviews, News, Top stories | 5 Comments »
11:34 am, January 14th, 2010, Nicole Martinelli
The iPhone app Busted! Real Mugshots serves up police pics from around the US with full names, birth date, age, arrest date/time plus the offending crime.
Dubbed “Facebook for criminals” by a pithy CoM reader, the app, offered gratis on iTunes, launched January 11, generating controversy faster than an ACLU lawyer can say “FOIA.”
Cult of Mac talked to Jeff Jolley, president of the app’s maker Fountain Dew.
He told us about getting the app approved (easier than you’d think), the “bad karma” aspect, and more importantly, how to get your mugshot removed after that artsy late-night prank ended in tears.
CoM: How did you get the idea?
Jeff Jolley: We read an article on the popularity of mugshot pages on newspaper websites
and thought that could be extended, in a more interesting, mobile and viral manner, to the iPhone.
CoM: How do you get the photos?
JJ: We search the Internet for publicly available (and regularly updated) mugshots, and then make them available for use in the app. We continue to look for new sources to expand the available repository of mugshots.
CoM: Are the mugshots storeable and searchable?
JJ: Not at this point. You always stream the photos and you always start with the most recent mugshot available. This could be a good future feature.
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in Interviews, News, Top stories, iPhone, iPhone Apps | 6 Comments »
7:35 pm, January 13th, 2010, Craig Grannell
Left: Pastebot, the latest Tapbots app. Right: Weightbot.
Creating an iPhone app is one thing, but making something that stands out in an increasingly deep, expansive crowd is something else entirely. And yet Tapbots have managed just that. Describing their trio of apps as “robots for your iPhone and iPod touch,” Tapbots has managed to infuse the most utilitarian of concepts with genuine personality, and this is largely down to playful and innovative interfaces. We caught up with Paul Haddad (“the programmer”) and Mark Jardine (“the designer”) to find out more about how Tapbots was born, the thinking behind its apps, and what their newest creation, Pastebot, can do for your Apple device. Read the rest of this post »
Posted by Craig Grannell in Interviews, News, Top stories, iPhone Apps | 5 Comments »
8:37 am, December 12th, 2009, Craig Grannell
The App Store remains a bone of contention for many developers, but IUGO knew its A.D.D. game would throw multiple spanners in the works. That said, it wasn’t expecting its minigame collection with a decidedly risque bent would languish in the approvals process for months. At the end of November, it finally emerged, having been stripped of many games, but still boasting 70 quickfire challenges for iPhone gamers.
I spoke to IUGO Director of Business Development Sarah Thomson to find out about how A.D.D. came to be, and about IUGO’s struggles to get the game approved for the App Store.
Read the rest of this post »
Posted by Craig Grannell in Gaming, Interviews, News, iPhone Apps | No Comments »
8:09 pm, November 18th, 2009, Eli Milchman
By now you’ve probably seen the viral clip for the Nude It app originally posted at whoisthebaldguy.com (if you haven’t, brush off that cave dust and watch it now).
The clip shows a mind-blowing iPhone app being used that employs augmented reality to de-clothe unwitting victims being viewed through the iPhone’s camera. Seems like great idea, judging by the 650,000-plus hits the clip has garnered in the five weeks it’s been up on YouTube.
Cult of Mac spoke briefly with the the clip’s creator, Michael Krivicka, a video editor living in NYC.
Posted by Eli Milchman in Interviews, News, iPhone 3G S | 2 Comments »
5:56 am, November 11th, 2009, Giles Turnbull
When I saw this snap in the Cult of Mac Flickr pool, I wanted to find out more. Who is the owner of the little family of Macs old and new, and how did they end up on this desk?
Posted by Giles Turnbull in Interviews, MacBook Pro, Vintage Tech | 6 Comments »
1:01 pm, November 5th, 2009, Leander Kahney
If you liked Wednesday’s interview with Apple ad man Ken Segall, just wait until you see what we’ve got coming next week.
We have an exclusive interview with one of the top people in the Apple story. I’d say they were number 3: the third most influential person in Apple’s history.
This is the first time they spoken publicly about Apple in many, many years. They have some good stories, a lot of fascinating insights, and a couple of surprises.
Can you guess who it is?
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, Interviews, News | 39 Comments »
7:13 am, October 22nd, 2009, Craig Grannell
If you’re a Douglas Adams fan, there’s a point fairly early on during iPhone ownership where you realise that you’re holding in your hands the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which is a nugget of information that hits you suddenly, rather like having your brains smashed out with a slice of lemon, wrapped around a large gold brick. Naysayers might disagree, but Apple’s handheld enables access to a mind-boggling array of information, via a friendly interface, even if it doesn’t have the words ‘don’t panic’ inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.
It therefore only seems fitting that the Hitchhiker’s Guide books are finding a happy home on Apple’s device, the latest of which is Eoin Colfer’s sixth Hitchhiker’s Guide novel, And Another Thing... In the US App Store, the novel is available in extended form, bundling the digital and audio versions, video clips, “bits of brilliance from the first five books”, and a bunch of other extras (App Store link).
Mindy Stockfield, VP of Marketing & Digital Media for Hyperion Books and Stephen Saiz, Director, Marketing for Digital Publishing, Disney Interactive Studios, gave us the low-down on the thinking behind the interactive version, and Eoin Colfer added his thoughts on getting the guide on your iPhone. Read the rest of this post »
Posted by Craig Grannell in Interviews, News, iPhone Apps | 2 Comments »
6:14 am, October 16th, 2009, Craig Grannell
Retina aims to assist color-blind iPhone users.
Cult of Mac: What was the inspiration behind Retina? Why did you decide to make it?
Stefan Fürst: The idea was born when my red-green blind bicycle buddy was talking in a very convinced way about his green bike he likes so much. He had been riding it for two years and had no idea it wasn’t green at all.
How does it work, and how did you decide on the interface?
The interface has been kept very simple to make it suitable for everyday use. The list of colors might look very short and inaccurate to non-color blinds—but to figure out if an object is green or red this works perfectly.
What feedback have you had from colour-blind users?
One of them made me to add the saturation indicator and told me that this helps him a lot.
In which ways do you think augmented reality apps will evolve in the future?
I believe that there are almost endless possibilities, but most uses would need higher processing power to make them run smoothly on an iPhone or other mobile device.
What are your future plans for iPhone apps?
Actually I am more of a Mac Developer, extending my desktop apps with iPhone helpers. I developed Retina for my color-blind friends and hopefully a lot of other people having problems in recognizing colors.
Having garnered some feedback from early Retina adopters, it seems there’s definitely interest in this kind of app, although Retina itself appears to have trouble with subtler colors, and it often claims it’s ‘too dark’ or ‘too light’ to make an assessment. However, for 99 cents, it’s worth a look for anyone severely color-blind wanting a quick and easy way to ascertain the color of things like clothing.
Posted by Craig Grannell in Interviews, News, iPhone Apps | 2 Comments »
9:52 am, October 12th, 2009, Craig Grannell
Canabalt's detailed pixellated graphics (zoomed here) draw you into the game.
With its simple tap-to-jump gameplay, high-speed scrolling and gritty dystopian atmospherics, Canabalt proved a hit Flash-based sensation when recently unleashed online. The game has now been released for iPhone and iPod touch—one of the first truly successful Flash-based games on the platform. We spoke to Adam Saltsman and Eric Johnson of Semi Secret Software about how the game came to be.
Read the rest of this post »
Posted by Craig Grannell in Gaming, Interviews, News, iPhone Apps | 2 Comments »
1:21 am, October 1st, 2009, Leander Kahney
Entrepreneur Peter Collingridge, founder of Enhanced Editions, an experimental ebook publisher that’s just put out Nick Cave’s The Death of Bunny Munro as an iPhone app, thinks it unlikely Apple is trying to “redefine publishing” as recent reports have suggested.
“Whilst I’d love it if Apple were looking at doing exactly this, I find it unlikely,” he says.
But Collingridge does think there’s huge opportunity in reinventing the ebooks as “digital books,” and that Apple’s tablet presents some interesting UI opportunities.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, Interviews, News, Tablet | 7 Comments »
5:29 am, September 24th, 2009, Craig Grannell
Squareball: don't apply if you're a gaming wuss.
Every now and again, a game comes along that makes you feel like a ham-fisted idiot, as though you’re clawing at your iPhone or iPod touchscreen with all the grace of a lobotomised monkey wearing boxing gloves. But the game is so compelling and addictive, you play on anyway, getting killed approximately every ten seconds, going ARRRGGGHH and then having another go anyway. Eventually, you realise that it’s you, not the game. The game isn’t unfair—you’re just rubbish, and you need to learn how to improve, just like in the old days with the likes of Defender.
Squareball by Finn Ericson ($1.99/£1.19, App Store link) is one such game. The concept is simple: drag the levels left or right to ensure your ever-bouncing ball doesn’t disappear into a hole or hit red tiles, and collect all the green tiles before the timer runs out. With graphics akin to Atari’s Adventure in pseudo-3D and a fab soundtrack, this game’s had me addicted and loving it and hating it in equal measure since its day of release. Today, I interviewed its creator to find out how this retro-themed mix of Pong, Breakout and simplified Super Mario-style platformer came to be.
Posted by Craig Grannell in Gaming, Interviews, News, Top stories, iPhone Apps | 2 Comments »
6:59 am, September 21st, 2009, Giles Turnbull
It rotates and everything
This fantastic rotating iPhone dock is made entirely of Lego. It’s the work of Steven Combs, a long time Lego and Mac enthusiast who runs web sites for adult fans of Lego and fans of technology generally.
Here’s a video showing the rotating mechanism in action:
I wanted to know a little more about hacking Macs with Lego add-ons, so I bombarded Steven with a few questions. And here’s what he said.
Posted by Giles Turnbull in Hardware Hacks, How tos, Interviews, News, Top stories, iPhone, iPod | 2 Comments »
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 4×4 Jam, A Doodle Fly, Business Card Reader, Gorillacam, Magnetic Joe, Magnetic Joe 2, Neocell Fighters Evolution, Noise.io LE, Rasta Monkey, Samurai: Way of the Warrior, and Ultimate Video [...]
Last year I signed up for a landline phone for my office. I wish I hadn’t for two reasons:
1. No one calls me.
2. Toktumi’s Line2 iPhone app, which adds a second, distinct number to my iPhone.
With a service like Line2, there’s no need for a physical phone at my place of work. I give my [...]
About a hundred years ago, while I was still a Windows user and thought that a Mac was what you covered in a cheese and slurped down for lunch, I whiled away way too much time playing a DOS-based artillery duel game called Scorched Earth. Dot Matrix Interactive Designs have created their own version in [...]
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.
A couple of weeks ago I canceled my MobileMe account. Why? Because it didn’t do the one thing I wanted it to do: share my calendar with my wife so we could coordinate our busy lives. That’s all.
I love MobileMe’s email, calendar, contact syncing (especially on the iPhone) and even iDisk. I gave Apple a [...]
On Windows, when you’ve finished using a particular piece of software, you close it with the X symbol in the top right corner of the application window.
Many switchers assume that the window close control in the top left of an OS X application window does the same job: but that’s not quite true.
In the Hackintosh community, the MSI Wind is somewhat legendary for being the first netbook out there that could essentially run OS X out of the box, with all features working and no hardware hacking required.
Now it looks like the venerable Wind has another Apple bragging point: with its keyboard ripped out and its [...]
The Menu Bar sits at the top of your screen at all times. Let’s take a moment to get to know it. It’s worth doing, because the Menu Bar is going to be one of your best friends.
When you used Windows, you were used to see menus inside each document window. File, Edit, all [...]
