Alex Heath - page 20

Most people use Facebook’s official iOS app to obsessively check their news feeds. But there’s another option that has a much better design and no ads. It’s called Paper, and it has been available for the iPhone since January.

Made by a special group within Facebook called Creative Labs, Paper is an experiment in how to use Facebook within a more media-rich, gesture-driven, elegant interface. If you haven’t heard of it yet, then you definitely need to check it out after the huge update it received today in the App Store.

When browsing the App Store, it’s easy to get lost in an endless sea of apps. Apple tries to make it easier to find the best apps with a team of editors that handpick the best options in different categories, like productivity and health.

In Europe, Apple now has editors curating seven more categories of the App Store, reports The Guardian. Adding more kinds of apps that are curated puts European App Stores on a closer level to the U.S. and Canada, where every category has human editors.

We’ve been seeing reports on Twitter of the iTunes Store not working, and it does indeed seem that Apple’s cloud servers are acting up. Both the App Store and iTunes Store are having trouble loading for a lot of people.

Apple stores are iconic throughout the world for the level of design that goes into their construction. In fact, it’s almost like they’re Apple products themselves.

Today Apple posted a video to its YouTube channel showcasing the preparation for its new store in the Omotesando area of Tokyo, Japan. With giant glass panes stretching stories-high, it’s a big store in a country that Apple is doing very well in right now.

App launchers on the Mac have always been geared toward power users, and lately tools like Alfred have become even more sophisticated, with user-created scripts and extensions. When Apple debuted the new Spotlight in OS X Yosemite at WWDC, it took many of the best features from existing launchers, like the ability to find any app you have installed with a couple keystrokes.

LaunchBar was the original app launcher on the Mac, and today a brand new version was released with a themable interface and new features.

Will tools like LaunchBar and Alfred live on when millions of Mac owners start using the new Spotlight this fall? Now that Apple has capitalized on the more consumer-friendly aspects of what makes a good launcher, third-party alternatives are going after power users like never before.

Nest, which is now owned by Google, pioneered the idea of a smart thermostat. Now several years later, Honeywell has a Nest competitor that might actually do well in the consumer market.

Called Lyric, Honeywell’s new WiFi-connected thermostat costs $279 and will be available at a Lowe’s near you by August. While it may be too late for the Lyric to compete with the Nest, Honeywell sees it as just the beginning of its entry into the world of the the smart, always-connected home. And being a launch partner with Apple’s HomeKit in iOS 8 could mean that more people buy the Lyric over Nest in the months to come.

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.

Apple will be working closely with the Food and Drug Administration on future products related to the health industry, according to new information provided by the government.

Back in January, The New York Times reported that Apple had met with the FDA to discuss “mobile medical applications.” The talk was believed to center on the company’s rumored plans for health-tracking software in iOS 8 and maybe even the iWatch. HealthKit and the new Health app were announced at WWDC last week, and an iWatch announcement is expected in October.

Now more of the details from Apple’s meeting with the FDA have been disclosed. Apple said it may have a “moral obligation” to do more with health-related sensors on mobile devices.

One of the videos Apple played during its WWDC keynote last week was a visual tour of the new OS X Yosemite. It’s only a minute long, but it showcases the overall design changes in the new OS quite nicely.

Apple has made the video available on YouTube, where it joins the other keynote video that looks at how developers are changing the world with their apps.

Starting with iOS 8, Apple is making it impossible for marketers to track you based on your iPhone’s MAC address.

When you walk around a store with your iPhone’s WiFi on, you’re are unknowingly transmitting your MAC address, a unique identifier for your device. Routers need the identifier to join you to a network. Ad agencies and retailers have been tracking these addresses to help offer personalized advertisements to customers based on where they’ve been.

Apple is putting a stop to this practice with MAC address scrambling in iOS 8, which could turn out to be a big win for iBeacon.

Now that Katie Cotton, Apple’s longtime head of corporate communication, has retired, Tim Cook is on the hunt for a “friendly, more approachable” face to head its PR going forward.

According to Re/code, Apple is looking outside the company for high-profile candidates to fill Cotton’s role. Depending on who replaces her, Apple’s relationship with the media could begin to warm up considerably.

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.”

More pictures of what is allegedly a shell for the upcoming iPhone 6 have surfaced, and if legitimate, they show the exterior design of the device in more detail than we’ve seen before.

There have been rumors, leaked design schematics, and more recently a single shot of another shell that was purportedly for the unreleased device. These new photos show not only the back, but the side of the shell in detail. It looks like Apple is making some design changes to accommodate a larger display.

Apple could be looking to make the Maps app more of a social experience. TechCrunch reports that Apple has bought Spotsetter, a service that let users search for places based on recommendations from friends.

Spotsetter worked kind of like Foursquare, expect that it pulled from a host of other social networks, including Twitter and Facebook. The startup allegedly had big plans for wearables as well, which could bode well for an imminent iWatch.

Get ready, because the iWatch is coming this fall—October, to be exact.

Corroborating another report from earlier today, Re/code confirms that Apple’s “first, long-in-the offing foray into wearable devices” is indeed slated for October of this year. The publication’s sources have been spot on with future Apple event dates in the past.

Six years after Apple pioneered what it means to be a mobile app, the company has reinvented the concept in iOS 8.

Thanks to what the company calls Extensibility, iOS 8 can let apps talk to one another and work together like never before. Once developers figure out how to implement their newfound flexibility, apps won’t just be apps anymore. They will become tools and services. Not just silos that can’t communicate, but pipes feeding into each other.

“Extensibility is tremendously interesting, and it’s fair to say developers have hoped for something like this practically since day one,” said David Chariter of AgileBits, makers of 1Password. Developers like AgileBits see iOS 8 as a sign that mobile apps will become not only smarter, but more powerful in their ability to aid users.

A Twitter account claiming to be run by superstar Apple exec Craig Federighi has been tweeting and retweeting as if it’s run by Hair Force One himself during WWDC. It has amassed more than 14,000 followers in less than two weeks and looks legit at first glance, but don’t be fooled.

We’re pretty sure it’s a fake — and we’ve seen an email that appears to confirm our suspicions.

The latest ad for Beats headphones prominently displays Apple products, which probably has something to do with the fact that Apple is spending $3 billion to buy Beats.

Clocking in at just over five minutes, you won’t see the ad on TV. It’s tailored for the upcoming World Cup, and Beats is not an official sponsor. Nevertheless, the ad is compelling and filled with celebrity cameos. Could this be the direction Apple is heading with its in-house advertising?

The 61st Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is honoring U2’s Bono with the first Cannes LionHeart Award for his achievements in the war on AIDS through (RED), a charity he created that has partnered with Apple for years.

Jony Ive will join Bono at Cannes Lions for a special interview moderated by Shane Smith, the CEO of VICE Media. The discussion with Bono and Ive will center around “the success of (RED) and it’s unique collaboration with global partners,” namely Apple.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTjejvnBJfU

In a new TV ad for the iPhone 5s, Apple shines a spotlight on some popular fitness trackers. Called “Strength,” the minute-long spot features the old song “Chicken Fat” from President Kennedy’s Physical Fitness Program for schools in the 1960s.

Trackers like the Withings Health Mate, Misfit Shine, and Adidas miCoach Smart Ball are shown in use. Apple just announced its new HealthKit framework for iOS 8 at WWDC, so developers will be able to start feeding Apple’s new Health app data from the kinds of wearables shown in the commercial.

Today a report said that Apple is starting to move its TV ad making in-house. The latest iPad ads featuring the voices of Robin Williams and Bryan Cranston were made internally by Apple, while iPhone spots like the one above are still being made by the ad agency TWBA\Chiat\Day.

If you’ve been holding out for a Retina iMac, the wait may be almost over.

First spotted in the latest Mountain Lion developer beta, code has now been uncovered in OS X Yosemite that references new resolutions for what would be a Retina display-equipped iMac.

Rumors of an Amazon smartphone have been circulating for a long time, but now it looks like the device will finally be shown to the world this month.

Amazon has announced a launch event for a “new device” on June 18th, and it’s probably a phone. Some kind of fancy 3D technology is rumored to be its main selling point, and Amazon has a teaser video that strongly suggest that will be the case.

Apple and Google aren’t the good friends they used to be thanks to the rise of Android as the iPhone’s main competitor. Ever since Apple axed Google Maps in iOS 6, it has been clear that Google’s days in Apple’s software are numbered.

The hardest Google service for Apple to replace is undoubtedly search. Siri is slowly becoming its own search engine of sorts that draws from multiple services like Wolfram Alpha and Wikipedia, but Google has remained the standard for traditional web search.

In iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, Google is still set as Safari’s default search engine. But with the introduction of more search partners in Apple’s new software, it’s hard to believe that Google search will enjoy its prominence for much longer.

Instagram was the golden standard for not only sharing, but shooting mobile photography in its early days. But since then, more complex tools like VSCO Cam and Camera+ have come onto the scene. Nowadays, getting the perfect photo isn’t often as simple as just tapping a filter.

Today Instagram is releasing a big update in an attempt to tap into the evolved state of iPhoneography it has been missing out on. New editing tools are being added that let you adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, and more.

Thousands upon thousands of apps get submitted to the App Store each year, but only a select few end up being honored with an Apple Design Award. The most beautiful, well-designed apps get crowned by Apple annually at WWDC.

“The developers of these exceptional apps combined design and technology in creative, compelling and powerful ways,” according to Apple. 2014’s winners include games we’ve featured on Cult of Mac like Leo’s Fortune and Monument Valley. If you’re looking to try some new apps, these 12 are the ones to get.