Full category list for displayed posts: Interviews, News, Top stories
![iOSOpenDev Is A “Shortcut” For Cydia Devs, But Is That A Good Thing? [Interview]](http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Screen-shot-2012-02-09-at-11.52.01-AM.jpg)
The jailbreak community is full of talented developers and innovative ideas that have kept Apple on its toes for the past several years. The time and effort that goes into creating a quality tweak is often unappreciated by the average jailbreaker.
A free tool called iOSOpenDev was recently released for developers. Those with basic programming knowledge can use Xcode templates for creating jailbreak-style apps and tweaks that can be easily published to Cydia, the jailbreak version of the App Store. While iOSOpenDev is attempting to make it easier for developers to code tweaks, apps and plugins, we sat down with a prominent jailbreak developer to ask if iOSOpenDev is really a good thing for the jailbreak community.
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![Apple TV Hacked To Run App Store Apps, What It Means For Developers [Interview]](http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/485339727.jpg)
Known developer Steven Troughton-Smith has been able to run iOS App Store apps on the Apple TV fullscreen at the device’s full, 720p resolution. Troughton-Smith also worked on the Siri port that was demoed months ago and made available for jailbroken iOS devices last week.
With the help of another developer by the name of TheMudKip and Grant Paul’s MobileLaunchpad launcher, Troughton-Smith has been able to run iOS apps natively on the Apple TV without using AirPlay.
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Father Paolo Padrini is the Italian priest who developed iBrevary, an app that puts morning prayer, evening prayer and night prayers on the iPhone. It was the first iPhone application sanctioned by the Holy Roman Church, Padrini also works with the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
Cult of Mac talked to him about what’s next app-wise and what place religious apps have in iTunes.
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![Sparrow Was Born From Letters.App, And Why Tweet-Like Email Is Just The Beginning [Exclusive Q&A]](http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Sparrow2-e1297795097925.png)
Last week, one of the most interesting Mac programs to come out in years hit the App Store in Sparrow for Mac, an elegant and attractive e-mail client that looks and acts a lot like Twitter.
I loved it, comparing it to more full-featured clients like Postbox 2 by saying Sparrow was “the equivalent of skipping stones, not piloting a submarine.”
I decided to reach out to Sparrow for Mac team member Dom Leca and ask him a few questions about the origins, inspiration and future of the e-mail program that treats your Gmail as if it were Twitter.
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![Interview: Arc90’s Richard Ziade Explains Why Readability Is Now A Whole Lot More Than Just Javascript [Exclusive]](http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/screens1.png)
Readability is an excellent bit of Javascript that strips online content down to its barest and most readable elements, and was borrowed wholesale last year by Apple for the new Safari Reader option in Safari 5.
Late last month, it became even more excellent by relaunching itself as a reading platform in its own right. Launching aside a native iOS app powered by Marco Arment’s excellent Instapaper, Readability is now more than a snip of Javascript code but instead a monthly subscription service that pays 70% of its collected fees directly to the writers and publishers being read.
We reached out to Arc90’s Richard Ziade for a quick chat about what Readability’s new change in scope would mean not just for existing users, but for publishers of web content looking to get paid.
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![The Agony & The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs: Q&A with Mike Daisey [Interview]](http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/MD_SJ61.jpg)
Mike Daisey isn’t afraid to rant. The mercurial storyteller first made a name for himself on stage by decrying the state of American theater. Tech is a natural target for him – he’s survived a stint at Amazon.com and takes apart computers to relax – so he really makes his point forcefully with a two-hour monologue called “The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” onstage now through Feb. 27 at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. (See our review of the show here.)
During our 40-minute conversation, I get the uncomfortable feeling he’s ranting directly at me. In fact, the show takes tech journalists to task for being subservient to the industry as well as missing the whole story of where all the shiny gadgets we report about so breathlessly come from. Ahem.
Cult of Mac talked to Daisey about why both Apple fans and PC people will enjoy his show, as well as his own gadget gear and why donning Steve Jobs’ signature black turtleneck on stage would’ve been “fucking stupid.”
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![The Designer Behind Those Stunning Apple Mosaic Portraits [Interview]](http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/2313082920_27ce2a886e_z.jpg)
Experimental portrait of Steve Jobs. @Charis Tsevis
Visual designer Charis Tsevis creates high-impact images by piecing together digital minutia into stunning mosaics.
Tsevis, based in Athens, Greece has worked for Toyota, IKEA, Bradesco Bank, Saatchi and Saatchi, BBH and media like Time, Fortune, Los Angeles Times, Sunday Times and Forbes, to name a few.
But you probably know his work from the intricate portraits he created of Steve Jobs from Apple-related images, which frequently grace the covers of international magazines. (He starts with a Mac-only software called Studio Artist by Synthetik before heading to Photoshop.)
These odes to Apple can sometimes take a week or so of 16-hour days to put together — it’s the kind of work only a Cupertino fan could love.
Cult of Mac talked to Tsevis about how he got started, getting the portraits into T-shirt form and his favorite piece of Apple technology.
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Former vice president Al Gore recently spoke about another kind of inconvenient truth: his role as the last Mac standing in what became a PC White House during the Clinton administration.
Nowadays, Macs and PCs coexist in the inner sanctums of power — iPads abound for playing Pac Man or catching up on email — but back in the day it was much more an either/or proposition.
Mac Directory recently published an interview with Gore, where he touches on being the last Apple holdout in the West Wing, as well as the importance of Apple’s commitment to open source and how it may influence and help grow the Cupertino company.
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![I’m an Apple Junkie, Says Toy Story 3 Director Lee Unkrich [Exclusive Interview]](http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Lee_Unkrich.jpg)
Unkrich during production of "Toy Story 3" in November 2009 (Photo by Deborah Coleman / Pixar)
This is a guest interview by Mike Bastoli of The Pixar Blog, a popular news blog about the studio.
Lee Unkrich is the director of Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story 3, the highest-grossing animated film of all time, which was released on DVD, Blu-ray and iTunes today. He also served as co-director of Toy Story 2 and editor of Toy Story, and is a member of Pixar’s Senior Creative Team.
Unkrich is an avid Mac user and Apple ‘addict’ who can be spotted at Apple’s events from time to time. “Whenever I’m invited, it’s something awwwwwwesome,” he tweeted to his 80,000 plus followers on Twitter ahead of the launch of the iPad in January.
Here’s an exclusive interview with Unkrich, who talks about his first Mac, Apple cameos in Pixar’s movies and Steve Jobs feeding his Apple addiction.
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PlainText is the latest text app from Hog Bay Software‘s Jesse Grosjean.
Jesse, as many of you will know, is the genius behind several other apps for iOS and the desktop, including WriteRoom and TaskPaper.
PlainText is very similar to, but not exactly the same as, another of his apps called SimpleText. Where SimpleText was built to sync with a home-made service called simpletext.ws, PlainText has been built from scratch to sync with Dropbox.
PlainText is a simple text writing tool for iPhone and iPad. It will sync with Dropbox, and includes support for TextExpander snippets if you use them. It’s free, supported by adverts. If you want to switch them off, you can for a one-off payment of $4.99.
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![Read "Why You’ll Probably Never Own A Mac With An ARM Processor [Feature]"](http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/macbookairarm-300x250.jpg "Read \"Why You’ll Probably Never Own A Mac With An ARM Processor [Feature]\"")
![Read "Is This USB Vibrator The New iPod? [Interview]"](http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/crave1-300x250.jpg "Read \"Is This USB Vibrator The New iPod? [Interview]\"")
