Buster Hein - page 178

Apple is still waging a legal war with Samsung, but the company is already bracing for a new battle that threatens to entangle Apple with its foes Google, Adobe and Intel against a pack of angry tech workers who say the four companies were in cahoots on a no-hire agreement.

According to the latest court filings, the 64,000 tech workers represented in the class-action lawsuit claim that Apple and the other companies should not be allowed to limit evidence about Steve Jobs in the upcoming trial, no matter how unsavory it may be.

iPhone 6 component leaks have begun erupting up like wildfires the past week, setting the web ablaze with promises of a bigger iPhone, but according to some new leaked photos Apple is also tweaking the design of the iPad Air to be thinner than ever.

Rather than slogging through a lake of reviews to find something you’re just going to put down after 10 minutes, Cult of Mac has once again waded through the iTunes store to compile a list of the best new albums, books and movies to come out this week.

Enjoy!

Albums

The Afghan Whigs – Do To The Beast

The Afghan Whigs haven’t released an album in over 16 years, but that streak finally dies with the release of Do to the Beast. Rather than picking up right where they left off, the Whigs have shunned 90s nostalgia and leaned on influences in R&B, soul and funk, for an album that’s rich, dark, and raw even if it misses the mark as a true rock album. 

iTunes – $9.99

August Alsina – Testimony

August Alsina first broke big when his single “I Luv This S**t” became a viral hit in 2013, and although some fans are worried he might be coming on too hot, he’s ready to mine his hip-hop connections for gold in his debut album, Testimony, that features appearances by Young Jeezy, Pusha T, Rick Ross, B.o.B., Chris Brown, and Yo Gotti. But August is never overshadowed by his rap overlords, thanks to his sweet evocative vocals that are something of a mashup between Usher and Omarion.

iTunes – $13.99

Chet Faker – Built on Glass

Melbourne-based Chet Faker established himself as one of the most alluring voices in electro-soul thanks to his cover of “No Diggity” in 2012 and the series of sultry singles that followed. Built on Glass, his first full-length album, is a swirl of blues-inflected ruminations on love, loss, desire and emotional desolation. Combined with spare beats, hypnotic samples and yearning melodies, Built On Glass is an imaginative, soulful delight.

iTunes – $9.99

Books

Creativity Inc.
by Ed Catmull

Thousands of books have tried to formulate the secrets of creativity, but as one of the co-founders of Pixar, Ed Catmull is uniquely positioned to dispense advice on creativity in business. In Creativity Inc., he explores the lessons learned while creating some of the most beloved animated films of the last 20 years and the ideals and techniques that made Pixar so widely admired – and so profitable.

iTunes – $11.99

Can’t and Won’t
by Lydia Davis

Rick Moody once called Lydia David “the best prose stylist in America,” but you can make that judgement for yourself as her fifth collection of stories Can’t and Won’t hits iTunes this week, demonstrating all the power of her sly humor and finely honed prose, as her stories seek to untangle the predictable patterns of daily life.

iTunes – $12.99

WAR! What Is It Good For?
by Ian Morris

Ian Morris’s new book makes our list for its excellent title alone (seriously, no one else thought to name a book after the popular song?), but there’s more to WAR! than just its catchy title as Morris explores one of history’s greatest paradoxes to see how war has changed our society for the better. With all of those unmarked tanks edging towards chaos in Ukraine, it’s a timely read.

iTunes – $12.99

Movies

The Unknown Known

From Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld was one of the most powerful men behind the scenes in Washington for over three decades. In this shocking documentary about the use and abuse of American power, Academy Award winner Errol Morris sits down with the former United States Secretary of Defense to discuss his career in Washington D.C. from his days as a congressman in the early 1960s to planning the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

iTunes – $6.99

Joe

Nicholas Cage is the probably the most hit-or-miss Academy winner of all time, which makes recommending any movie he’s in tricky. This one, however, is a safe bet:  Cage has his best role in years with a film about a hard-living ex-con who inexplicably becomes a role model  to a 15-year old homeless boy as he teeters between redemption and ruin.

iTunes – $6.99

Beneath the Harvest Sky

Fans of Game of Thrones will enjoy seeing Aiden Gillen (who plays sinister Little Finger in the HBO series) put his devilish charm to good use in Beneath the Harvest Sky. Here  he plays an outlaw character teaches his struggling teen son the business of smuggling drugs in an indie film that was all the hype at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival.

iTunes – $4.99

Facebook announced this morning that it’s adding a new Nearby Friends feature to its mobile app for iOS and Android that lets you stay more connected than ever with your buddies by letting you stalk every step they take.

Among Jony Ive’s many changes brought to iOS 7 was the tinkering of the keyboard’s Shift key which has inexplicably gotten worse over time.

Streaks of successfully guessing whether the shift key is on or not should be award with showers of iTunes credits, but as designer Geoff Teehan points out, Apple could fix its keyboard woes with one simple change.

Check it out:

I didn’t pay much attention in high school chemistry class, which probably put my grades even lower than Jesse Pinkman’s, but if the study of matter and science gets your curiosity boiling, ChemLabs has a chemistry learning app that would please Mr. White himself.

The Apple vs Samsung legal battle has been full of low points for both companies as they spare for global domination, but an email from Samsung’s VP of Sales fired off just two days after Steve Jobs’ death shows how heartless the war has gotten.

Shortly after Jobs’ passing in 2011, Michael Pennington, head of national sales for Samsung Telecommunications America, told company leadership in an email acquired by CNET that Steve’s death was the best opportunity Samsung was going to get to attack the iPhone.

Here’s the full email:

HBO’s new comedy Silicon Valley has been the toast of TV the past two weeks with its irreverent satirization of life inside the exorbitant tech startup scene.

Not everyone in the valley is a fan of the show with its Square-toting strippers, amped-up nerd stereotypes and creepy angel investors, but we’ve been mesmerized each week with the main title sequence, which showcases the rise and fall of some Silicon Valley’s most heralded companies.

Apple’s headquarters actually pops up twice — but don’t blink or you’ll miss it.

Watch the full sequence below and see if you can spot it:

When Apple finally revealed it’s iOS car integration system CarPlay earlier this year the only hope of getting iOS on your dash in 2014 was to buy a new Ferrari or Benz, but thanks Pioneer’s announcement that it’s adding CarPlay to its 2014 aftermarket in-dash car multimedia systems, you hoopty could be rolling with CarPlay later this summer.

If busting out your iPhone to catalog your #outfitoftheday is just too tedious, meet the mirror that will take your selfie game to the next level.

S.E.L.F.I.E (Self Enhancing Live Feed Image Engine) looks like your average mirror, but behind the shiny glass facade is a Mac Mini-powered selfie machine that features facial recognition tech so all you have to do is smile snap your picture.

Here’s how it works:

By now you’ve heard all about the catastrophic Heartbleed bug and how it has siphoned passwords, credit card numbers, emails and other data to the vampires who would drain all of us dry. From your love life (OKCupid) to your tax returns, there’s a lot at stake.

Since 66% of web servers are vulnerable to the bug, that means you’re faced with only task more fun than decluttering the garage: changing your passwords.

To help you on your password resetting chores, we’ve compiled the best tools to make the process as quick and painless as possible. Also, they’ll sync your new passwords to your iPhone — all in under 10 minutes. Leaving you time to watch Silicon Valley again.  You’re welcome.

Here’s how:

Apple released a new update for its iMovie for Mac video editing software today that adds a number of tweaks, bug fixes, and a small sampling of new features.

iMovie version 10.0.3 is the third small update since the app was received a big update last fall, but new improvements are mostly minor with new sorting options, adjustable font sizes and colors, and better speed effects.

Here’s a rundown of the changes:

Heartbleed sent the web reeling with the discovery that the catastrophic security hole quietly left passwords and other private data open for the taking on nearly 66% of the Internet’s servers.  Luckily for Apple customers, iOS and OS X were never vulnerable to Heartbleed but some of the most popular sites and services on the Internet weren’t so lucky.

Many companies are still working to patch their hole, but Mashable has compiled a list of the biggest sites hit by Heartbleed. There’s no way to tell if your info was actually snatched by attackers, but if you have account on the following sites that were affected and subsequently patched, you should change your password ASAP:

Rather than slogging through a lake of reviews to find something you’re just going to put down after 10 minutes, Cult of Mac has once again waded through the iTunes store to compile a list of the best new albums, books and movies to come out this week.

Enjoy!

Music

Sage the Gemini – Remember Me

Los Angeles is getting a lot of credit for the west coast’s rap resurgence thanks to Kendrick Lamar, YG, and the A$AP crew, but Sage the Gemini would like to turn your attention to the Bay Area this week with his debut album that has everything from hopping instructional dance floor drills like Gas Pedal and College Drop to your bravado tracks, while also exploring Sage’s variety combined and garrulous charm.

iTunes – $9.99

Todd Terje – It’s Album Time

I fell hard. It took me just 30 seconds to love, love, love Todd Terje’s new album. The other 3,520 seconds weren’t bad either as Terje mixes a delicious cocktail of disco and surf tone instrumentals. It’s kind of like elevator music, only really fun danceable elevator music.

iTunes – $9.99

EMA – The Future’s Void

Erika M. Anderson, better known by her stage name EMA, perked ears up with her debut album Past Life Martyred Saints due to the brutal intimacy of her songs, but with her latest effort, The Future’s Void, EMA goes for something new by turning her focus to things and issues rather than the people she cut herself off from in the first album.

iTunes – $9.99

Books

The Wrong Enemy: America in Afghanistan, 2001-2014
by Carlotta Gall

Many many books will yet be written about the war in Afghanistan, but few will have a deeper personal acquaintance with Afghanistan and Pakistan New York Times correspondent Carlotta Gall who has been reporting from the area for almost the entire duration of the American invasion. Now that the U.S. is on its way out,  Gall’s book outlines how we’ve been fighting the wrong enemy, in the wrong country.

iTunes – $18.99

The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry
by Gabrielle Zevin

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, the third novel from Gabrielle Zevin, is about a 39-year-old widower named A.J., a cranky drunkard with a bookstore in shambles, but mostly it’s about reading. Each chapter starts with the title of short story or book and note from A.J. that introduces each new character along with what they read, using literature as his prism for judgement.

iTunes – $11.99

The Divide
by Matt Taibbi

The yawning economic gap has promised to be a huge issue coming up in this year’s midterm elections which makes Matt Taibbi’s new book, The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap a timely read if you’re curious about two alarming trends – growing wealth inequality and mass incarceration.

iTunes – $13.99

Movies

Philomena

Philomena is based on the incredible true story of British journalist Martin Sixsmith, who reluctantly decides to accompany Philomena Lee on her search to find the son who was taken from her at a convent 50 years ago. The film could’ve been a sentimental nightmare in other hands, but thanks to the stellar cast, journey is both smart, funny and heartfelt.

iTunes – $14.99

Ride Along

I usually find Kevin Hart’s hyperactive comedy riffs too exhaustive to be enjoyable, but tempered against the stone- cold attitude of Ice Cube he’s pretty great. Here in Ride Along, the two actors are a police duo out on ride-along designed to scare the hell out of Hart’s character so he’ll stop foolin’ around with Cube’s sister.

iTunes – $14.99

Patton Oswalt: Tragedy Plus Comedy Equals Time

Technically you can also get Patton Oswalt’s latest stand-up special as an album, but Patton’s jokes on the trials and tribulations of frozen foods, failed outings with prostitutes, fatherhood and other uncensored topics are so much more entertaining watching them on the big screen with your friends.

iTunes – $14.99

The discovery of the Heartbleed security bug sent the web into a panic with it’s devastating OpenSSL vulnerability.

On a scale of 1 to 10 of Internet catastrophes this one goes all the way to 11, according to respected security analyst Bruce Schneier, who isn’t prone to manic exaggeration.

A shriek of “CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS”  has erupted from the throats of sites issuing evasive maneuvers, but you might want to hold off on going password-reset-crazy for just a few days.

Here’s why:

Like some sort of corporate Willy Wonka, Apple has thrilled 5,000 eager coders by inviting them to the Worldwide Developers Conference this June. But, like the fictitious candy man, Cupertino also crushed the dreams of thousands of would-be attendees who didn’t snag a golden ticket to the Apple event of the year.

“I’m going to WWDC!!!!” tweeted Kevin Sliech after he got an email Monday saying he had been selected to buy a WWDC ticket. “So incredibly pumped it’s absurd.”

Thanks to a new lottery system, this year’s rush to get WWDC tickets didn’t result in a crippled website that sold out in 71 seconds. Still, the odds of securing a spot at the San Francisco event were probably higher than ever, since developers could register for a chance to buy a ticket without ponying up the $1,600 in advance.

Apple has already shown us how the iPad is used to explore the deepest oceans and tallest mountains, but in for its newest segment of the ‘Your Verse’ campaign the iPad has gone totally Bollywood.

Famed Bollywood choreographer Feroz Khan stars in the new Your Verse microsite on Apple.com that chronicles how he’s integrated the iPad into his entire production processes and how it helps him create spectacular Bollywood dance numbers.

All the down time must get painfully boring after serving as the most powerful man in the world for eight years, which is how former George W. Bush somehow tumbled into painting.

Bush just picked up a brush two years ago, but the former president’s portraits have been all over the news the past few days and it’s all the iPad’s fault.

Apple finally announced the dates for WWDC 14 and while there won’t be a mad two minute dash to sellout this year, it might be even harder to get in thanks to Apple’s new lottery system.

Only 5,000 developers will be selected to purchase tickets to the Apple event of the year that will packed with everything from new product announcements, hands-on labs, concerts, and code melting out of your eyeballs.

Here are five reasons why WWDC 2014 shouldn’t be missed:

Rather than slogging through a lake of reviews to find something you’re just going to put down after 10 minutes, Cult of Mac has once again waded through the iTunes store to compile a list of the best new albums, books and movies to come out this week.

Enjoy!

Albums

Marc Demarco – Salad Days

Listening to Mac Demarco’s third solo album Salad Days is a trip to a laid-back 90s guitar-pop. Demarco’s voice dips up and down over tracks with growing maturity that, coupled with subtle production, makes Salad Days the best carefree jam of 2014 to date.

iTunes – $9.99

Cloud Nothings – Here and Nowhere Else

Cloud Nothings might be the best rock band you never heard of. Hailing from Cleveland, the indie-rock trio pushed out their fourth studio album this week, Here and Nowhere Else, that is pumped full of grisly rock singalongs that are thrilling, conflicted and caustic in all the best ways.

iTunes – $7.99

Pure X – Angel

Austin’s Pure X debuted the their second album less than a year ago but they’re already back with a third in the form of Angel. Its dreamlike acoustic guitar riffs are paired with tempos that create a mood reminiscent of the Eagles or Fleetwood Mac, even though the album artwork looks like something you’d buy from a mall t-shirt kiosk.

iTunes – $14.99

Books

Flashboys
by Michael Lewis

If you enjoyed the celebration of vanity and wealth in Wolf of Wall Street, you’ll probably dig Michael Lewis’ new book Flash Boys. The characters are less-cliche than your average Wall Street types which makes the stories more interesting as they discover a new way to make mountains of cash – high-frequency trading. The book made big news this week when a footnote about one of these firms, Virtu, delayed its much-anticipated IPO.

iTunes – $14.99

Long Mile Home
by Scott Hellman & Jenna Russell

In the same vein as 102 Minutes and Columbine, Long Mile Home is the definitive book about the Boston Marathon bombing and subsequent manhunt for the Tsarnaev brothers, straight from the Boston Globe reporters closest to the scene. It covers the expected ground detailing the horrors of the bombings but also serves as a testament to the resourcefulness and resilience of the Boston community.

iTunes – $14.99

Frog Music
by Emma Donoghue

Emma Donoghue’s first book, Room secured her reputation as a bestseller, but rather than staying with familiar territory, her second book is a dark murder mystery set in San Francisco in the year 1876. Frog Music mixes literary eloquences with vigorous plotting that really shows Donoghue’s range and talent as writer.

iTunes – $10.99

Movies

August: Osage County

Based on the Tony-award winning play of the same name, August: Osage County is both dark and hilarious thanks to an incredible cast of strong women who step into the roles of the dysfunctional Weston family. Meryl Streep is pitted against Julia Roberts after losing her husband, but others like Juliette Lewis, Abigail Breslin and Margo Martindale add divergent paths of drama for the family in crisis.

iTunes – $14.99

Mistaken For Strangers

Mistaken for Strangers is about two out-of-orbit siblings hell bent on finding harmony with one another. It pits Matt Berninger, frontman of the almost-famous band The National against his slacker brother Tom, an aspiring filmmaker. Mayhem ensues when Tom is hired to film the band’s breakout tour but eschews his duties in hopes of using the band’s fame to springboard his own troubled career.

iTunes – $14.99

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Ben Stiller’s latest film sees the comedian jump into the sensible shoes of Walter Mitty, a shy film developer for Life magazine who also has a tendency to slip in and out of daydreams. When his job, and that of his co-worker/crush are endangered, Walter sets out on an extraordinary journey of his own. Some of the gentle humor from the 1947 Danny Kaye classic survives, though greatly enhanced with a giant dose of modern CGI effects.

iTunes – $14.99

Apple’s thermonuclear war on Android has thrown the company into the courtroom more times in the last five years than ever before, so in an effort to make U.S. patent laws bend to its will, Apple has joined forces with some some of its old enemies, IBM and Microsoft to form a U.S. lobbying supergroup to fight patent trolls and push new legislation through congress. 

The iPad is four years old today and my mom hates it. Maybe not hate. Dislikes. Loathes. I don’t know the right word but for two weeks it sat in Apple’s pristine white box, unwrapped, unlocked, setup and then discarded; snuggling in its brown leather SmartCover completely untouched.

After dismissing it as “just a big iPhone” it’s grown on her in four months, just like it’s grown on us since 2010. Now it’s the only place she watches YouTube, looks at pictures, reads websites, FaceTimes and gets down on Solitaire like Kim Jong-un at a nuclear buffet.

It’s the best damn thing to ever happen for children with tech-illiterate parents.

After a disastrous Windows 8 launch that saw Microsoft embrace a new tiled user interface, the company announced today that it’s backpedaling and resurrecting popular Windows 7 features like the Start Menu.

Twitter was abuzz with the news of Start Menus with the majority of tweets cheering the return, but after closer inspection of the Franken-hyrbid interface we think they should have left it to rot in a tomb.

Everybody is making emoji video interpretations of pop culture nowadays, but with Game of Thrones season 4 premiering in just four more days we’re particularly fond of this video, Game of Phones.

The clever video brings you up to speed on the basic drama of seasons one through three, culminating in a fantastic rendition of the Red Wedding.

Via: Deadspin

Apple and Samsung are headed back to court today for round two of their billion dollar patent lawsuit that will see the two companies pointing fingers and slamming down arguments on who copied whose patents.

We’ve seen enough evidence to have our own opinion on Samsung’s copying ways and now thanks to this Thai cartoon it all becomes perfectly clear why Samsung just can’t help itself.

Image: Killua51
Thanks: Grahame