Security researchers discovered a new way to hack the Mac’s built-in webcam this week, and the method is undetectable by users.
Apple built a green LED light into every Mac with firmware-level protection that turns on anytime the sensor is tripped by unauthorized access. The security feature has become increasingly difficult for hackers to beat, but former NSA staffer Patrick Wardle found a way to piggyback on outgoing feeds and record them.
The popular messaging platform Slack is ready to go from text-only to providing voice calls for teams that use the service to communicate.
Starting today, paying teams using the iOS, Mac and Chrome apps will be able to make group calls, giving you one less reason to keep Skype installed on your Mac.
Google has its very own answer to iMessage in Allo, and now it’s taking on FaceTime, too. Google Duo is a brand new video calling platform that’s available to Android and iOS users, and it’s packing unique features you won’t find elsewhere.
The Snapchat revamp you’ve been reading so much about in recent months has landed.
Dubbed “Chat 2.0,” and available today on Android and iOS, it finally brings voice and video calling, improved Snapchat Stories, and 200 brand new stickers.
A painting by artist Jorge Pardo is taking work away from bull-slinging gallery explainers.
The piece, which is currently showing at Art Basel in Miami, depicts an impressionist version of the artist on a slide at a water park. It comes from a photograph his daughter took and looks really cool, but that’s not the most interesting part of the work.
That honor belongs to the iPad set into the lower-right corner of the piece that can let anyone who walks by connect to Pardo via Skype.
The weekend is short enough as it is, and Cult of Mac knows you don’t want to spend it searching through the App Store for the best apps you might have missed over the past week.
Whether you’re after wacky bread-related games for your iPhone, video chatting tools for your iPad, or or a nifty travel-related messaging service for your Apple Watch, we’ve dutifully combed through the best offerings of the past 7 days to find something for everyone.
Check below to see our picks:
Starting today, Skype users in the U.S. and U.K. can start making calls directly from their browsers.
The Skype for Web beta makes the chat program available without having to download and install the program’s dedicated app.
It’s a bad week for simple messages capable of bringing down entire apps. Following on from Apple’s Messages-crashing “Unicode of death” code, a nasty bug has been discovered in Skype, which promises to crash the software every time you attempt to sign in.
Thankfully, the bug doesn’t appear to have any effect on Skype for Mac, although it does work on the iOS version, as well as the Windows and Android versions.
And getting rid of it’s not easy.
The infamous brains behind MegaUpload, Kim Dotcom, has just launched the beta version of his latest product: a browser-based encrypted video calling and file-sharing service he hopes will take on the Microsoft-owned Skype.
Called MegaChat, the service uses what is called User Controlled Encryption (UCE), meaning that you get a decryption key provided, and are then free to send it to people so that they you can trade files with them. Like the Web-based MegaUpload, no software installation is required, although there are Chrome and Firefox extensions which aid with improved performance and security.
Star Trek Captains Picard and Kirk could talk to any alien, no matter how different it was from humanity, thanks to the universal translator, a magical sci-fi device that explained away why strange civilizations in far-away solar systems all spoke English.
That future just got a little less far-fetched, thanks to Skype Translator, a new preview service that uses technology from Microsoft Research to translate two different languages back and forth in real time.
This is heady stuff, as school kids in Seattle and Mexico City seem to instantly recognize when they chat back and forth in English and Spanish via the Skype service in the video below.
WhatsApp, one of the most popular messaging services on mobile, has long had plans to step up its assault against the likes of Skype and Viber with a free voice calling feature that was initially promised for the second quarter of 2014. Now the company’s CEO has confirmed that the launch is planned for early 2015 instead.
I recently watched The Lady try to convince a friend of ours to download WhatsApp. The friend is moving to the United Kingdom, and we want to stay in touch. Our friend tried to say that email would do the job, but we all know that will never work.
Our friend doesn’t want WhatsApp (maybe because it’s owned by Facebook), and she doesn’t own an iPhone, so iMessage is out. Thankfully, there are plenty of free and good alternatives. Some are more secure, some have more features, and none of them is owned by Facebook.
Let’s take a look at what’s available and how these very different messaging apps compare on a number of key features.
Yesterday Skype announced a major redesign of its iPhone app that was scheduled to hit the App Store sometime next week. For some reason the update is already available. It packs several new features that are designed to make the app easier to use.
The Skype team at Microsoft has been hard at work on a complete rewrite of their iPhone app, and it’s arriving in the App Store next week.
Version 5.0 of Skype for iPhone looks very similar in some ways to the existing Windows Phone and Android Skype clients, but its developers promise that they have built it to “fit iOS best.”
Universal translators are a common trope in science fiction. In The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, they come in the form of the babelfish, a tiny crustacean you jam in your ear. In Farscape, they are bacteria injected into your body. In Star Trek, they take a less squishy form as a wand or tiny computer pinned to your lapel.
In all incarnations, though, a universal communicator is seen as alien and futuristic. But Microsoft wants to change all that. The Washington-based company has just revealed a new real-time speech translation tool that is set to be built right into Skype, and which can translate any foreign language into English in the blink of an eye.
This time on The CultCast: rumored new EarPods take your pulse and more; updated Macbook Airs get faster and cheaper; a leaked “iPhone 6” case indicates an iPod-inspired design; Google takes on Office with new iOS apps for Drive; we ponder the state of the iPod; and we pitch our favorite tech and apps then vote on which is best… it’s an all new Faves N Raves!
Have a few chuckles while we catch you 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 the audio adventure begin!
And thanks to Lynda.com for sponsoring this episode! Learn at your own pace from expert-taught video tutorials at Lynda.com.
Click on for the show notes.
It has been a long time coming. Today Skype finally made group video calling a free feature for users on the Mac, Windows, and Xbox One. iOS is left out of the initial mix, but Skype says that it will be adding free group video to more platforms in the future.
Immensely popular cross-platform messaging service WhatsApp is gearing up to take on Skype with voice-over-IP (VoIP) calling — and these are the screenshots that prove it. The feature will have a similar interface as the built-in Phone app, and it boasts features like speaker phone and muting.
Today Skype updated its iPhone and iPad apps with two-way HD video calling. The enhanced resolution is only available on the iPhone 5s, iPad Air, and Retina iPad mini.
Chatting over text has gotten much better with today’s release. Skype has integrated with Apple’s Notification Center to show incoming messages even when the app is closed. In the past, Skype had to still be running in the background for push notifications to work. Group chats will be receiving the same upgrade in a future update.
Source: Skype
BBM has been a huge success on Android and iOS, and so although they may be rival platforms, that won’t stop BlackBerry from porting over its biggest and best BBM features to keep its messaging service alive.
In 2014, the Canadian company will rollout major updates that add BBM Channels, BBM Voice, and new sharing features — and you can see them in action in the video below.
Viber, the hugely popular cross-platform messaging service, now offers low-cost calls to mobile phones and landlines worldwide as part of a new service called Viber Out. It’s available on Android, iOS, and though the Viber desktop client, and it boasts call fees substantially cheaper than Skype’s.
In this increasingly noisy, digital age – simple is the new style.
That’s what Native Union had in mind with the POP Desk – a handset and custom-designed stand to hold your smartphone. The large, classic style of the handset allows you to make mobile, Skype and other VoIP calls comfortably – like an old-school business pro – while the anti-slip rubberized pad holds your smartphone securely in place. And when you’re done at the office, keep it classy on the move with the CLIC Wooden iPhone case. Individually cut from natural cherry wood and hand-polished – each case is as unique as the owner carrying it.
You can have all that simplicity and style for a fraction of the regular price thanks to this Cult of Mac Deals limited offer – just $64.99.
Skype for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch has finally been updated for iOS 7. The new release, available to download now from the App Store, introduces a new, “refreshed look and feel,” as well as a number of improvements.
Notetaking comes in all forms, but it is essential when conducting interviews. I’ve done many, and no matter how good I am at using something like Evernote I always feel that much better having the original words in some format on my Mac. It means more accuracy when grabbing pull quotes. It means more notes that get retained for use in a story. Basically, it means I can focus on asking the questions and letting the technology handle what it can do best for me.
That’s why having an app that can handle that is such a huge asset. Whether it’s interviews, meetings, or even grabbing audio snippets directly from the web browser (like I did for my own TEDx talk), it’s an excellent tool to have at your disposal. (After all, even a conversation over Skype is essentially an audio stream, right?)
An example of this type of tool is Audio Recorder Pro (although it does focus on audio streaming more than anything else) and Cult of Mac Deals has it for $4.99 for a limited time.
Skype has confirmed that it is working to deliver 3D video calling for compatible televisions and computer displays. But according to Mark Gillett, Skype’s corporate vice president, it could be a number of years before the technology comes to fruition due to a lack of suitable capture devices.
