Santa

Read Cult of Mac’s latest posts on Santa:

The best Christmas apps for iOS

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The Best Christmas Apps for iOS
Our 5 favorite apps for making the most of the holiday season.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

The holidays are officially upon us. That means family time, festive celebrations, joyous music and an overabundance of delicious food. To help get you through the holidays, we compiled a list of the best iOS apps to make the most of the season.

Whether you’re looking for a way to provide some entertainment for the kids, hosting friends or family, or just want a way to spread some festive cheer, we’ve got your tree trimmed, so to speak.

Spend Christmas Eve tracking Santa’s journey from your iPhone

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Follow Santa' magical journey from the comfort of your iPhone or iPad. Photo: NORAD

There are plenty of festive apps out there, but one of the quirkiest and most fun is the NORAD Tracks Santa app, which lets you keep real time tabs on Jolly Old Saint Nick as he carries out his gift-dispensing journey around the globe.

As one of the foremost authorities on tracking man-made objects in space, the North American Aerospace Defense Command has been tracking Santa’s progress for many years now. For those who don’t want to use the app, its possible to visit the Santa Tracker website, or check out the updates on Twitter.

Mall Santas, ‘rollover’ data, and our most-wanted gifts on The CultCast

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Photo: izismile.com
Photo: izismile.com
Photo: izismile.com

Merry CultCast, boys and girls! This week: Santa gets a little “grabby”; Apple wins a major lawsuit; our iPhones deserve “rollover” data plans; the incredibly low payouts artists get from Spotify; and the high-end gifts we really want but will never get on an all-new Get To Know Your Cultist.

Thanks to Audible for supporting this episode. Audible, the home of over 150,000 audio books from practically every genre in existence. Grab our Leander Kahney’s book, Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products, for free with a 30-day Audible trial.

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Catch the full show notes ahead.

Watch Every iPhone TV Ad Ever Right Here [Video Gallery]

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Apple’s reputation for having the best advertisements out of all technology companies on the planet is well deserved. Not only are their ads phenomenal in quality, but they’ve made a certified crap load of them. The iPhone alone has enjoyed 84 separate TV advertisements over its five year exsistence, and now you can watch them all in one place. Adweek has compiled the entire iPhone advertising campaign into a single page so Apple fans can go through each ad chronologically, starting with the famous “Hello” ad that premiered at the Oscars in 2007, to the most recent one where a kid commands Siri to proclaim him a Rock God.

With so many ads, it’s hard to declare a favorite, but here’s a couple that we’re pretty fond of:

Apple’s Santa Siri Commercial Named Most Effective Ad Of Holiday Season [Report]

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Santa has come and gone on his sleigh, and Apple has profited along the way. A survey from Ace Metrix, a TV ad analysis firm, has revealed that Apple’s Santa Siri commercial beat out 34 other Santa-themed spots to win the crown of most effective ad for the 2011 holiday season.

Apple’s commercial, featuring Santa and the iPhone 4S’s Siri assistant, scored a 652 out of a possible 950 points in Ace Metrix’s survey, topping competitors like Pillsbury, Coca-Cola, and Nintendo.

Santa’s Appointments In New iPhone 4S Ad Are All For Staff At Apple’s Marketing Firm

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If you haven’t already seen Apple’s new iPhone 4S ad in which Santa uses Siri, then go and check it out — it’s really great. You may notice than when Santa checks his calendar, he has 3.7 billion appointments on Christmas Eve, four of which are with Whitney Kollar, Mark Sloan, Paula Cristalli, and David Young.

These aren’t just random names dreamt up by employees at Apple’s marketing firm — they are employees at Apple’s marketing firm.

Santa Meets Siri – Happy Holidays from Apple!

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Apple’s advertising runs the gamut from motivational to touching, pragmatic to inspiring. They don’t play the humor card very often, but this latest ad showing Santa using Siri on an iPhone to help him through his rounds is actually pretty funny and appropriate for the season.

Thanks Siri! Thanks Santa! And Happy Holidaze to all…