Apple is ready to tackle one of the most ambitious sci-fi projects in the history of Hollywood after the company greenlit a new TV series based on Isaac Asimov’s Foundation.
The new TV show is being produced by Skydance Television with David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman signed on to write the series that’s about a galactic empire of humans living on multiple planets across the galaxy.
Popular Star Wars characters will pop up in Apple stores and other retail outlets around the world next week in a promotional event powered by augmented reality. Apple and Disney teamed up for the Star Wars promo, which coincides with the release of new toys for the upcoming movie Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Jony Ive has revealed that the company’s iconic white earbuds were inspired by Star Wars stormtroopers.
In a new interview, in which he also talks at length about Apple Park, the Apple design chief describes how he had the dark side in mind while creating them for the iPod.
Apple’s retro IIc computer that was released in 1984 has been obsolete for 30 years, but an NYC-based illustrator has just proven that it is still capable of creating amazing stuff, if you’re willing to put in the time.
Animator Wahyu Ichwandardi unveiled his Apple IIc masterpiece on Twitter by re-creating the latest Star Wars: The Last Jedi trailer in using software from the early 80’s.
Prepare to be blown away:
“Sketchnotes” are an increasingly popular form of visual note-taking. By combining text and images, sketchnotes are not only beautiful, but often easier to recall than text alone. The technique is an effective way of capturing notes and ideas in the classroom, meetings and conferences.
All next week, illustrator and senior UX/UI designer Andy McNally will be sketchnoting Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) for us, starting with the big keynote on Monday.
Andy has been covering Apple’s events as sketchnotes for some time. We ran some of his sketchnotes from last year’s event, which proved very popular. He’s back again this year, and is planning to publish sketchnotes from a variety of sessions at the conference.
Before he gets started, Andy shared some tips and techniques for getting started on sketchnoting yourself. Let’s take a look:
There’s been an awakening. Have you felt it? Star Wars is back, and the return of the year’s biggest nerdfest is upon us. May the 4th is when fans of the galaxy far, far away get a chance to revel in their fandom with their fellow fans around the world. And with the next Star Wars movie mere months away, the Force is strong with this one.
Part of the festivities is the chance to get great deals on Star Wars swag, and the Cult of Mac Store is no exception. We’ve got deals on a bundle of some of the best Star Wars games ever made, a treasure chest of Rogue One collectibles, and a floating speaker worthy of Darth Vader’s desk. Everything is dramatically discounted and worth nerding out over.
Disney just made Good Friday a little extra good by dropping the first trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
The two-minute video teases Rey getting some one-on-one lightsaber training with Luke Skywalker, as well as tons of epic battle scenes with huge explosions, new ships and some new faces.
Check it out:
Disney dropped a brand new trailer for the upcoming movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story during the Olympics tonight, giving fans of the Force their first glimpse at Darth Vader’s return to the big screen.
The action-packed trailer is full of new bad guys, droids, and rebels, some of which have teamed up to steal plans from the Empire right before it begins testing the dreaded Death Star. James Earl Jones is returning to provide the voice of the Chosen One who is probably not going to be happy by the end of the film that’s set before the events of A New Hope
Behold:
Star Wars has given fans a behind the scenes of the upcoming movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story which is due out later this year.
As part of the Star Wars 2016, director Gareth Edwards and Kathleen Kennedy and unveiled a new clip detailing the making of the new film that looks like an massive war film set at one of the most beautiful locations in a galaxy far far away. Star Wars nerds can get an early look at many of the new aliens, droids and troopers that are set to land in theaters later this year.
Check it out:
The first trailer for Rogue One, the first stand-alone Star Wars movie, finally dropped this morning and it looks absolutely amazing.
There’s so much war going on in the two-minute trailer that our minds can barely take it all in. Prepare to get Star Wars fever all over again!
Star Wars and Mario Kart don’t seem to have much in common at first glance, but when you mash the two mega-universes together at hyperspace speeds, the results are more than super.
Dark Pixel created an incredibly fun new video called Star Kart that imagines what it’d be like if Mario and his pals cruised around the Star Wars galaxy in your favorite spaceships, complete with all the banana peels, golden mushrooms, turtle shells and wacky racing the Nintendo game is known for.
Watch Bowser and Baby Bowser try to take down Mario and the gang as they race from Tatooine to Hoth — and then ultimately the Death Star:
Looking for a way to express your love for both the greatest sci-fi movies of all time as well as your penchant for electronic dance music (EDM)?
Hollywood Records, American Recordings, and legendary producer Rick Rubin have got you covered with a new official album, Star Wars Headspace, a compilation of original EDM tracks that have various Star Wars sounds and effects within them.
Sounds hot, right? You can preview three of the tracks thanks to Beats 1’s Zane Low, below.
Disney revealed today that Star Wars Episode VIII will be delayed until December 15th, 2017.
It’s only an extra seven months, but it means fans will have to wait two years to find out what happens next to the characters of the highest grossing movie of all time.
If you’re looking for some Star Wars awesomeness in the meantime, the folks at pipocaVFX created an incredible 8-bit video of all the death scenes in Star Wars. You can watch your favorite character die in cutesy 8-bit format below, but bewarned, it includes spoilers from The Force Awakens.
This week on The CultCast: Why 2015 was one of Apple’s best (and worst!) years ever; what Apple needs to improve in 2016; and future tech that could change the world. Plus, stick around for our deep dive into The Force Awakens, our in-depth review of the magic, delight and heartbreak of J.J. Abrams’ new Star Wars universe.
Our thanks to FreshBooks for supporting this episode, the easy-to-use invoicing software designed to help small business owners get organized, save time invoicing and get paid faster. Get started with a free trial at Freshbooks.com/cultcast.
This week: the force is looking very strong with the new Star Wars movie; live football may be coming to the Apple TV; the tvOS app store hits a major milestone; why you shouldn’t expect 3D touch in the next iPad Air; and with 2016 on the horizon, we’ll review our favorite games, gadgets, and books of 2015. Hit play, you must!
Our thanks to FreshBooks for supporting this episode, the easy-to-use invoicing software designed to help small business owners get organized, save time invoicing and get paid faster. Get started with a free trial at Freshbooks.com/cultcast.
There are two things in the universe that give us incomparable joy: Apple devices and Star Wars nerdery.
The latter is strong with the video below, where Jimmy Fallon, his house band The Roots, and the major cast members from The Force Awakens sing a medley of Star Wars music in a giant Brady Bunch-style colored grid.
If your lightsaber doesn’t explode with joy when you watch, there’s obviously something wrong with you.
Check it out below.
Star Wars week is finally here, and what better way to celebrate The Force Awakens than with our first look at the next movie in the Star Trek series?
Paramount Pictures debuted the first trailer for Star Trek: Beyond, directed by Justin Lin of Fast & Furious fame. Kirk and the gang are back in action, and it looks like they’ve got a host of new aliens to contend with, including Idris Elba who’s dressed up as some lizard-like alien bad guy.
Check it out:
A new poll of the most-wanted technology from the Star Wars universe shows that fans may not have really thought their answers through.
The survey comes courtesy of Harris Poll and software developer myDevices and asks one question: “If you could have any technology from the Star Wars trilogy, which would you want?”
While we approve of the study ignoring the prequels completely, we aren’t sure about the winners because it sounds like what these fans are really requesting are amazing and spectacular deaths.
The whole tech world is losing its mind with Star Wars mania, and Apple’s no exception. Hidden within Siri is a neat reference to George Lucas’ epic space opera — accessible when you use the iconic “I am your father” line from the end of The Empire Strikes Back.
Check out some of Siri’s best responses below.
As a company staffed by some bona fide geeks (and, hey, we’re not complaining!) Google is undoubtedly excited about the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
And what better way to show it than with possibly my favorite Easter egg in Google history? If you haven’t heard about it yet, read on to discover more.
When you go to theaters to see the latest Star Wars movie, the special effects — particularly the faces of aliens — will now be driven by Apple technology. That’s because Apple has purchased Faceshift, a Zurich-based company that has created cool tech to capture a person’s facial expressions in real time.
Google has teamed up with Disney and Verizon to develop a new virtual reality series in celebration of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The story ties directly into the new movie, and Google Cardboard owners can enjoy it on December 2 — but there’s more to check out today!
The new Apple TV is all about apps and games, so it makes sense that there are five new ads from Apple on its YouTube channel that are all about specific games and apps.
Check out the videos below for streaming media apps like Netflix and HBO, along with a trio of gaming titles, including Apple TV ads for Asphalt 8 from Gameloft, mega-hit casual Crossy Road from Hipster Whale, and Disney Infinity 3.0 Edition: Star Wars from the House of Mouse.
JJ Abrams has been doing a bad job at keeping his promise not to release anymore trailers until Star Wars: The Force Awakens hit theaters next month.
A new trailer debuted online last night for the highly-anticipated movie and while it doesn’t have as many new scenes as the international trailer that dropped a few weeks ago, there are a couple interesting new bits, like Finn fighting a stormtrooper with some type of electric anti-lightsaber baton.
We’ve created GIFs of all of the new scenes so you can obsess over all the details:
Apple Watch owners have had some time to play around with the wearable’s custom faces since the feature launched with watchOS 2, and some creative tech and sci-fi fans have come up with delightfully nerdy ways to spruce up their devices.
A few users have taken to making specially formatted faces that showcase their love of games, movies, and TV shows, but the really enterprising ones have found ways to include coordinated Apple Watch bands into their designs.
Here are some of the coolest ones we’ve tracked down.
