Mini

iPhones are great, but to get the most out of them you’ve got to have the right accessories. But when you’ve already dropped coin for a new phone, it’s hard to think about shelling out even more cash. So we’ve rounded up some of the best iPhone peripherals you can get for under 20 bucks. That includes a tough but flexible mini tripod, and a set of keychain-sized Lightning cables. Plus, we have a set of premium Bluetooth earbuds, and a device to turn any iPhone into a universal remote. Read on for more details:

The best iPad case I ever had was the red leather Smart Cover for the iPad 2 (and iPads 3 and 4). It looked and felt great, and only ever got better with age. It’s sturdy (the Lady is still using it on her iPad 3), and while the metal hinge has worn a shiny pattern into the iPad’s edge, it grips way better than the plastic-hinged covers for the Air and Mini.

In short, I loved the leather. To get an Apple-made leather cover for the iPad mini, though, you need to buy the Smart Case, which is a case, and regular readers will know I’m not so hot on cases thanks to their usual bulk and weight.

So how does the crazily overpriced Smart Case shape up? Pretty damn well.

With this Cult of Mac Deals offer, you can turn your living room into a war-zone with this iPhone-controlled, missile-firing helicopter.

Forget toy remotes – you control this hovering hellion with your iPhone, iPod Touch, or
iPad! Just download the free app, plug the transmitter into your headphone jack, and take flight. Grab one of these for just $49.95 – a savings of 28% – and make it a holiday the tech-lover in your life will never forget.

I ordered a Retina iPad mini (128GB, LTE, silver if you’re asking) barely 30 minutes after I noticed Killian had posted about it. And yes, I have to wait 5–10 days, but so does everyone else. Even those hippies on the West Coast who sleep in ’til noon every day before making their mango smoothies.

Which is to say that I agree with Ed Dale’s smart take on Apple’s weirdly quiet launch of the Retina mini: that it was designed to keep folks happy.

Who’s got a wad of 20s and a burning sensation in his pocket? This guy! But seriously friends… October 22nd, 2013. Go ahead and insert that date into your iOS 7s, because even though they haven’t confirmed it yet, that’s the day Apple will be unveiling two new iPads unto the world. But will we see new MacBooks, Mac Pros, and the other tasty tech we’ve been wishing for? Hit play on our newest CultCast, where we reveal our hopes, dreams, and expectations.

Whatcha waiting for? Have a few laughs and get caught up on each week’s best Apple stories. Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let baseline roll!

The time ’round on the Cult of Casts: it’s finally confirmed! New iPhones are coming September 10th… we’ll run through our expectations for the big day and offer a bold prediction of a big 5S spec bump. Then, Apple’s about to do something no tech company has ever done, and… seriously Samsung, a smart watch?

And stick around for our new segment, CultCast Second Hour, and catch our conversation with professional video editor and visual effects artist Mike Gaines as we talk the pros and cons Final Cut X; what software the editing pros use; the best cameras for indie projects; and all the Mac gear you need for a solid video product rig; plus so much more.

Have a few laughs and get caught up on all the finest Apple stories in the land. Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the unadulterated audio enjoyment begin. Show notes up next.

This week on The CultCast: Jobs! We’ve seen it, and now the question is — is it any good? We’ll discuss the much-hyped movie (100 percent spoiler-free), Ashton Kutcher’s performance and love for the man, plus examine if the real Jobs fits the fictional portrayal.

Then, an all new Yay & Nay: September 10th edition. We’ll yes and no our way through the rumors and what we expect at the all-but-confirmed Apple iPhone event.

Have a few laughs whilst getting caught up on this week’s best Apple stories. Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the audio adventure begin. Show notes up next!

This week on The CultCast: Logic Pro gets Pro’er with new features and iPad controls; Google Maps finally comes to iPad; Apple hunts for iWatch engineers; more iPad Mini retina rumors; Apple slangin’ TV deals with studios to kill commercials; we dish great computing tips on Tips Ahoooy!

Have a few laughs and get caught up on this week’s best Apple stories. Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the audio adventure begin.

Glympse is a clever — and potentially lifesaving — feature that we’d love to see in more smartphone-connected cars.

It started out as a free app that can broadcast the user’s location to selected contacts, Facebook friends or Twitter followers. But it’s become a valuable tool for drivers of smartphone-connected Fords and Merecedes-Benzes, allowing them to broadcast their location without taking their hands off the steering wheel.

Now BMW and Mini have partnered with Glympse, raising the marque total to four.

There’s been a lot of buzzing lately about Samsung’s hot new Galaxy S4 phone and its gimmicky cutting-edge new features. But bizarre air gestures aside, we’ll tell you which of its features we’d love to see Apple “borrow” for iPhone 6 on our all-new CultCast.

Plus, a new Steve Jobs movie you’ll actually want to see; and, is it possible for Apple for make a device more perfect than the iPad mini?

All that and more on this episode of the CultCast! Subscribe nowon iTunes to download our new episodes, or easily stream new and previous episodes via Apple’s newly updated Podcasts App.

Or, you know, just hit play below.

This week on The CultCast—finally—it’s time to talk iPhone 5S and iPad 5! We’ll tell you why April and August might be bringing you the tasty new iDevices, and if they’ll be drastically different than the models we’ve already got.

Then, is Apple is a innovation lull? Ex-Apple CEO John Scully thinks so. We’ll tell you what we think is really going on.

Subscribe to The CultCast now on iTunes to download our newest episode, or easily stream new and previous episodes via Apple’s free Podcasts App.

Show notes up next!

Stitcher Radio for iOS has today been updated to add a nifty new “Topic Search” feature that helps listeners discover trending topics across more than 15,000 shows. The update also brings better episode management, improved Voiceover mode, performance improvements, and more.

You know what surprised me last week? That the iPad mini is almost as capable a work computer as my Retina iPad. The screen isn’t quite as readable, and you have to wait for Safari to reload pages and for apps to cold boot more often thanks to the lack of RAM, but as a machine to write on, it works amazingly well.

Which is why Logitech’s Ultrathin Keyboard for the Mini is a very welcome little accessory.

This post is for entertainment purposes only. Sure, there are people out there that will need a case with which they can transport up to twenty iPad minis, and which can charge all of them simultaneously, but they are probably few.

No, the real reason for this post is that the PowerSync Roller 20 is both amazing looking, and ridiculously over the top.

On our brand new CultCast, we talk rumors of a new iPad 5 and mini in March and the features we think Apple needs to build into iOS 7, but we couldn’t help wrap the show with our favorite movies of 2012. Why? Cause it’s just that slow of a news week! What better time to have an episode where anything goes?

So we get crazy on this week’s CultCast, even talking about burlesque dancing and whether Xbox or Playstation is the right system for you.

It’s an all-new Mad-Maxian new episode of CultCast! Subscribe to on iTunes or easily stream new and previous episodes via Apple’s free Podcasts App.

Galaxy Tab; Nexus 7; Kindle Fire HD—they’re all doomed, and on this week’s CultCast, we’ll tell why Apple’s new iPad mini will most definitely sit as the king of all tabs small.

Then, we review a new social iOS game so stellar, it’ll have you clamoring for Game Center friends just so you can get your fix.

All that and more on our newest CultCast! Subscribe now on iTunes, or easily stream The CultCast via Apple’s free Podcasts App.

Note: Some listeners have informed us that iTunes isn’t displaying episode 39 yet, but if you subscribe, it will show up and download just fine.

Onwards, to the show notes!

That’s pretty darn fast: Keyboard-maker Zagg has unveiled two new keyboard cases for the iPad Mini, just a day after Apple pulled the sheet off its new pint-sized iPad. There’s the Zaggkeys Mini 7, a pared-down seven-inch model that spans the width of the Mini, and the Zaggkeys Mini 9, a 9-inch version with a slightly more comprehensive suite of keys.

New, mini iPads; new, thinner iMacs; 13-inch Macbook Pros with Retina displays; you could wait till Tuesday to discover all the great products Apple’s about to unleash into the world, but that’s what grandpas do. Join us on our newest CultCast, and find out everything we know and expect from next week’s big media event right now. And, um, no offense to actual grandpas, cause I love grandpas, they’re the best.

Plus: 3rd-party lightening adapters and cables—they’d make great stocking stuffers, am-i-right? We’ll tell you when you can finally expect to see them in stores.

All that and more on our newest CultCast! Subscribe now on iTunes, or easily stream The CultCast via Apple’s free Podcasts App.

Read on for the show notes!

It’s a battle royal on our shiny new CultCast! Don’t miss our Apple Vs. Samsung trial breakdown, where Cult of Mac reporter Jose Fermoso tells us what it was like to be in the tension-filled courtroom, what the verdict means for consumers, and where Apple and Samsung go from here.

Then, a topic you suggested, dear CultCast listeners! We talk AppleCare, Apple’s extended warranty program, and tell you when it makes sense, when it doesn’t, and which gadgets you should always keep covered.

Subscribe to The CultCast now on iTunes, or easily stream new episodes right on your iPhone or iPad with Apple’s newly updated and freshly debugged Podcasts App.

Read on for the show notes!

It seems like Apple’s sixth-generation iPhone will be the first iOS device to boast a brand new, mini dock connector when it launches this fall. But there have been rumors that claim Apple will refresh all its iOS devices to make the new connector a standard across its entire lineup.

Not only does this seem highly unlikely, but there’s one reason why it’s an impossibility: Apple’s supply chain just couldn’t handle a refresh that big.

It seems like every couple weeks now, we get new rumors that the iPad is about to get all mini-me on us. But does anyone really want a smaller iPad? We’ll tell you what we think on our latest CultCast.

Then, Raves and Faves! The segment where we pitch our favorite tech and then vote on which is best — only one gadget may live!

Go on and subscribe to the CultCast here, or download Apple’s smart new Podcasts app and effortlessly stream The CultCast whenever you’d like.

Full show notes ahead!

Apple’s line of MacBook Airs never shipped with an optical drive and now the Mac Mini has joined the party. The new Mac Mini, released this week, no longer includes one of these drives either. If you want an optical drive to use with these Macs you have to purchase an external USB SuperDrive. Now the arrival of the new MacBook Air and Mac Mini herald the death of the USB thumb drive.

You might be surprised to find out that neither these systems ship with a set of  DVDs or a USB thumb drive that you can use to restore, repair or reinstall Mac OS X.

Instead Apple has come up with something new.

I did something last weekend that I know many of you may have done already. I dragged my Mac Mini into the living room and connected it to my large screen LCD TV. I ran into an interesting problem after doing so. My Mac Mini would not display the Mac OS X menu bar. It wasn’t visible, but luckily there is an easy fix for this problem.