Buster Hein - page 179

This morning’s gallery of iPhone 6 renderings had us drooling for an iPhone 6 but a set of leaked images claiming to originate from Apple supplier Foxconn might be our first glimpse of Cupertino’s next handset, or at least a phase of its development process.

The Weibo account they were posted on claims they’re straight from the Foxconn production floor, but seems how all the April Fools jokes are coming out today, we advise take pairing this with a hearty serving of skepticism.

Here’s another pic:

SAN FRANCISCO — Moscone North has been packed with exhibitors for the last three days as they peddle their latest wares to the Apple faithful. We combed through all the booths, and while there were a ton of underwhelming products, Macworld 2014 did feature some really cool stuff and a couple surprises.

After some fierce debate among the Cult of Mac editors, we’ve settled on seven things that are truly deserving of a “Best of Macworld 2014″ title. So without further adieu, here they are:

Once again Cult of Mac has waded through this week’s endless list of new releases of books, music and movies to find the very best stuff so you don’t have to.

This week’s selections feature a little bit of pop, emo, gangsta rap, novels set in pre-Hollywood Los Angeles, and greedy dragon guarding one of Middle Earth’s most valuable treasures.

Music

Future Islands – Singles

Pop fans will soak up the energy and ambiance that flows along every note from frontman Samuel Herring in the fourth album from Baltimore pop synth band Future Islands. Singles manages to balance pop and melodrama built around a new age beat. The first half is definitely better than the back, but Future Islands indulgence in poppy beats is so fun you’ll probably have the entire album on repeat.

iTunes – $9.99

YG – My Krazy Life

YG’s “My Nigga” and “My Nigga (the remix)” have been on repeat during my jogging runs pretty much nonstop the last two weeks but My Krazy Life is full of great tracks that aren’t super innovative but serve as a beautiful nod to the era of Compton rappers, featuring appearances by SchoolBoy Q, Drake, Lil Wayne, Jeezy, and Comptons new king, Kendrick Lamar.

iTunes – $9.99

Owls – Two

Tim Kinsella’s work under Owls isn’t really pop and not totally emo despite its cryptic, piecemeal lyrics, but it falls unpleasantly inbetween. Two is the band’s first work in over 13 years, and while the album has been called “highly anticipated” from the best of fans, it’s also the most accessible piece of music Kinsella’s made for new fans as well. 

iTunes – $9.99

Books

Leaving China: An Artist Paints His World War II China
by James McMullen

I still think children’s’ books are best enjoyed in print where you can cuddle up with the pages, but James McMullen’s latest work really shines on the iPad. Leaving China depicts the artist’s exodus from China giving kids and adults alike a glimpse into life in China during the tumultuous  World War II era.

iTunes – $9.99

The Age of Radiance: The Epic Rise and Dramatic Fall of the Atomic Era
by Craig Nelson

Craig Nelson first rose to prominence with his autobiography on Thomas Paine, but rather than tackling another historical figure, for his next book he gives us the first complete history of the Atomic Age, chock full of accounts from people who uncovered the secrets of the nucleus and brought its power to America.
iTunes – $12.99

Mount Terminus
by David Grand

David Grand’s Mount Terminus is one of the best coming-of-age novel this year thanks to its elegant yet dark prose. Set against the backdrop of pre-Hollywood Los Angeles, the novel focuses on a young man named Bloom who is uprooted to California after the death of his mother and chronicles the rise of the film industry.

iTunes – $12.99

Movies

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Smaug finally slithers into life for the second part of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy The Desolation of Smaug. Bilbo and the company of dwarves have slipped through the White Orc’s meaty claws, but now they face an even more potent adversary as they make their way into the depth of the Lonely Mountain in search of the arkenstone.

iTunes – $19.99

Delivery Man

Just when I started believing Vince Vaughn could no longer carry a comedy by himself, he brings it with Delivery Man. It’s the story of an anonymous sperm donor, Starbuck (Vaughn), whose sauce is so potent he fathered over 500 children. Vaughn’s character finds out the shock of his life might be the best thing to ever happen to him in this feel-good comedy that really delivers the laughs.

iTunes – $19.99

Grudge Match

I’d love to see Stallone and De Niro go at it in an epic good-guy bad-guy movie, but since they’re both more worried about osteoporosis than adding to their oeuvre of action flicks, we’ll have to settle for the comedy Grudge Match which sees the two actors as long-time rival boxers from the Pittsburg who rekindle their rivalry 30-years after their prime.

iTunes – $19.99

SAN FRANCISCO — It’s that time of year when the biggest Apple fans in the world congregate on Moscone North for a three day celebration of all things Apple. This year’s Macworld/iWorld show offers a little something for everyone from hands-on tutorials for taking better iPhone photos or live-recording with an iPad, to parties, tons of exhibitors, games, and more.

Cult of Mac will be covering all the Macworld festivities starting today on our live-blog, but if you’re wondering what all the fuss is about for Macworld, an event that even Apple doesn’t attend anymore, here six things that you won’t want to miss this year:

When it comes to emoji, Apple supports everything from a smiling pile of feces to intricately detailed sunset landscapes. But if you’re looking for racial diversity there’s not a black person to be found and we’re not sure if the dude with the thick mustache is supposed to be latino, but if you scroll through the collection you’ll get the point.

The lack of racial diversity in emojis was not lost on MTV Act’s Joey Parker who decided to email Tim Cook about the controversy and was surprised to get a response the next day about Apple’s efforts to make emoji more diverse.

Here’s what Apple PR Queen Katie Cotton had to say about the emoji controversy:

We’re still months away from the big reveal of the iPhone 6, which means concept designers still have plenty of time to toss around fanciful dreams of what Apple might do for the redesign of the iPhone.

Teaming up with Martin Hajeck, iCulture created the following concept mockups that would see the iPhone taking some design cues from the iPod Nano, with curved edges, a narrower bezel, and larger screen to boot.

Take a look:

Ashton Kutcher’s role as Steve Jobs didn’t exactly set the box office on fire when it was released last summer despite Kutcher deep diving into the former Apple CEO’s life.

If you’re one of the hundreds of millions of Americans who still hasn’t seen Jobs you can finally steam it for free on Netflix Instant.

The last Apple TV concept we saw had us swooning for a redesigned Apple remote/gaming pad, but if Apple decides to reduce the Apple TV’s size to take on the Chromecast and the new Roku stick, this Apple TV Air concept from Curved might be spot on.

Rather than running an HDMI cable to Apple’s little black box, the Apple TV Air concept would plug directly into your HDMI port, allowing you to instantly beam video from your iPhone to your big screen TV over AirPlay.

Take a look:

When iTunes Radio launched last spring, music streaming services like Pandora and Spotify took cover from the impending Apple invasion, but radio streaming apps like TuneIn Radio might be in Apple’s sights now as well.

Starting today iTunes Radio will feature National Public Radio as its first news channel for the audio streaming service. NPR’s channel will feature a 24-hour live stream with news, along with pre-recorded shows, but it won’t be the only news channel in the iTune Radio lineup.

Since taking over the Tonight Show from Jay Leno, Jimmy Fallon has brought in a host of stars to sit down and goof around with him in the studio. Last night was no exception as singer Billy Joel stop by and the pair form an improvised Doo-Wop group using nothing more than an iPad app.

They got a bit of help from The Roots to really bring it home at the end but for only mixing it up on the spot with an iPad even Tim Cook himself was impressed.

Check this out. @jimmyfallon and @billyjoel with iPad and a cool app called Loopy HD. Magical. https://t.co/dWlZr6Lsm6

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) March 21, 2014

Apple is releasing new Mavericks betas like clockwork with the last three coming one week apart from each other. Developers can now download the latest Mavericks update, OS X 10.9.3 beta 3 from the Mac Dev Center or via Software Update.

The first OS X 10.9.3 beta added support for a full range of Retina scaling modes for 4k monitors. The other have mostly focused on bug fixes with the latest seed note asking devs to focus on graphics drivers, audio, Safari, and contacts & calendar sync over USB in iTunes.

An iTunes 11.1.6 beta was also released this afternoon to devs that restores the ability to sync contacts and calendars to USB after Apple removed the option in favor of an iCloud-only approach.

Source: Apple

Once again Cult of Mac has waded through this week’s endless list of new releases of books, music and movies to find the very best stuff so you don’t have to.

This week’s top selections feature a lot of post-rock, some Wall Street debauchery, and a hearty serving of  cannibalism.

Enjoy!

Albums

Tycho – Awake

San Francisco-based visual artist and musician, Scott Hansen, aka Tycho, has been making gorgeous techno music for over a decade, but it wasn’t until he released his third album, Dive, that he started generating some traction. Now Hansen’s back with his fourth album, Awake, that feels like luminous dreams floating in space.

iTunes – $9.99

The War On Drugs – Lost in the Dream

Maybe rock is dead, or just dying, but Adam Granduciel isn’t keen to sit idly while it the state of rock deteriorates. His third effort with The War On Drugs has birthed Lost in the Dream, a rock album that draws influence from pretty much every major rockstar in the galaxy, giving it a sound that’s got a little something for everyone without making any concessions on a sound that’s looking to make its own mark on rock-and-roll. 

iTunes – $9.99

Perfect Pussy – Say Yes To Love

If you like your rock served loud, hard, and predictable check out Going to Hell from The Pretty Reckless, but for a more intense experience pick up Perfect Pussy’s debut album Say Yes. The five-piece band’s sound is a maelstrom of energy, punk, and distortion that is both vulnerable and unapologetic in its rawness.

iTunes – $8.99

Books

Savage Harvest
by Carl Hoffman

In 1961 Michael Rockefeller disappeared in New Guinea. As a member of one of the richest, most influential families in the world, his mysterious disappearance was hot news at the time. Rumors surfaced that he’d been killed and ceremonially eaten by the local Asmat—a native tribe of warriors whose complex culture was built around sacred, reciprocal violence, head hunting, and ritual cannibalism. The Rockefellers and the Dutch government denied the story, so Carl Hoffman has set out 50 years later to New Guinea, chatting with cannibals and other witness to track down what happened to the powerful scion.

iTunes – $14.99

All Our Names
by Dinaw Mengestu

At just 35, Dinaw Mengestu has already been showered with accolades including the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 award, The New Yorker’s 20 Under 40 award, and a 2012 MacArthur Foundation genius grant.  Now he’s ready to unleash his third novel, All Our Names, which features an unforgettable love story about a searing affair between an American woman and an African man in 1970s America.

iTunes – $12.99

Notes from the Internet Apocalypse
by Wayne Gladstone

I sure hope the internet doesn’t randomly collapse someday – mostly because I’ll have to figure out a new form of employment – but if it does, the world will probably look similar to the one envisioned by Wayne Gladstone in Notes From the Internet Apocalypse. Twitter junkies roam the streets speaking in 140 chars to each other or force cats to perform tricks for their amusement. (Which is more gruesome? Up to you.) It’s all pretty funny while at the same time examining the question: “What is life without the internet?”

iTunes – $10.99

Movies

The Wolf of Wall Street

The Wolf of Wall Street is depraved but glorious. Leonardo DiCaprio didn’t manage to win his first Oscar for his portrayal of real-life goon-investor Jordan Belfort but what with the quaaludes, money, and debauchery that serve as props in Wolf, he sure as hell had a better time filming it than skinny old Matty McConaughey’s did with Dallas Buyers Club.

iTunes – $19.99

Veronica Mars

Backed by one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns in history, Veronica Mars the movie is finally here and it’s available in theaters and iTunes at the same time so you can follow all the action right where it left off nine years after the finale of the third season.

iTunes – $19.99

Saving Mr. Banks

The story behind the story: here’s Tom Hanks stars as Walt Disney while Emma Thompson steps into the role of Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers,  who avoided signing away the rights to make her book  into a movie. Armed with his iconic creative vision, Walt pulls out all the stops, but the uncompromising Travers won’t budge, leaving Walt to reach into his own complicated childhood to discover the ghosts that haunt Travers.

iTunes – $19.99

Few CEOs can hold a candle to the wrath and fury of Steve Jobs, but when it comes to epic rants, Christian Bale can certainly hold his own against el Jobso, which might make him the perfect person to play Steve in the Aaron Sorkin written film from Sony.

Director David Finch is keen on getting the Dark Knight into Steve’s black turtleneck, according to a report from The Wrap, which says the director has pegged Bale as his top choice to play Steve Jobs.

It’s that time of year when office work comes to a stand still for weeks thanks to the NCAA’s annual celebration of sweat, leather, and nylon nets. The first games have just gotten underway and thanks to the glorious blessings of technology there are more ways to follow the March Madness action than ever before.

Here’s how to keep track of your favorite teams and your brackets on your iPhone, iPad and Mac:

The Settings app in iOS is starting feel a bit crowded as each new update seems to bringing new tweaks and options to the main board and deeper menu. Control Center added quick access to key parts of the Settings maze, but we wouldn’t mind if Apple added this simple ‘Search Settings’ feature to iOS 8.

Rather than plunging multiple steps deep into the Settings app, this concept from Christoph Fahlbusch would bring the pull-down search bar into the Settings app, making it consistent with the ‘Search iPhone’ UI. It’d come in handy for quick tweaks, especially for less advanced users who are still trying to figure out where to turn on emjois.

Source: Dribble

iTunes Radio still has a long way to go before it catches up with Pandora’s number of subscribers, but in an effort to keep up with increasing royalty costs, Pandora announced this morning that it’s bumping up the monthly subscription price for Pandora One.

Starting in May new subscribers will have to pay $4.99 per month if they want their music stream ad free, which is still cheaper than competitors like Spotify and Rdio (both $9.99 per month).

Apple’s alternative, iTunes Radio is ad-free with $24.99 annual iTunes Match subscription, but Pandora is deciding to just drop the annual subscription option altogether.

Here’s a breakdown of the pricing changes:

The LA Unified School District made headlines when it pledged to make it rain iPads on students by spending $1 billion on Apple’s tablets, but teachers are more concerned of the rain leaking through their classroom roofs.

The school district’s initiative is aimed to enhance students educational experience but a number of angry teachers have started a ‘Repairs, Not iPads‘ page on Facebook filled with pictures of everything from rat feces on desks, broken toilets, dead mice, termite infestations, leaky roofs and more, along with a demand that district spend money on much needed repairs before iPads.

Dozens of books have been written about Apple and Steve Jobs since the latter’s passing in 2011. None have painted as grim a picture for Apple’s future as Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs by Yukari Iwatani Kane, but in a rare public statement Tim Cook has come out to bash the book, calling it simply “nonsense.”

In our review, Luke Dormehl says Kane’s book was a missed opportunity that ultimately falls shorts, but Tim is a bit harsher with his criticism, saying Haunted Empire doesn’t properly capture Apple, Steve, or anyone else in the company for that matter.

Here’s the money quote from Tim:

The best basketball conference in the country just got a front row seat on the Apple TV thanks to the new ACC Sports channel added to the device’s lineup Monday morning.

Taking a selfie used to be a simple as firing up Instagram and unleashing your best narcissist, but now with so many options, what’s an iPhone user to do?

To help you out on your quest for the perfect selfie, Apple just introduced a new Sharing Selfies section to the App Store to promote apps like Picr, Frontback, Snapchat, Selfie Cam and eight other apps that will having you looking picture perfect.

The Selfie Sharing section can be found on the front page of the App Store on iOS and iTunes. Most of the apps are free while stuff like Front Flash and Everyday will set you back $1.99.

Source:

One week after seeding the first beta of OS X Mavericks 10.9.3 Apple has released a second beta build of the update to developers this afternoon.

The last beta added support for a full range of Retina scaling modes for 4K monitors, but release notes for the second beta are light on details of new features – if there are any at all. However, it does ask developers to focus on graphics drivers and audio.

OS X 10.9.3 build 13D17 is available for devs in the Mac Dev Center or via the Mac App Store.

In a plot ripped straight from 2005, Neil Young announced this week that he’s taking on the iPod with his new high-def audio music player, the Pono.

We had a good laugh talking about the Pono on this week’s CultCast, but after checking the Kickstarter page this morning it might be Neil who gets the last laugh as his project has already earned more than $2.5 million in pledges.

Titanfall has been the biggest and best reviewed game to hit the Xbox One in 2014. So many people have been gushing about the gameplay all over Twitter, I nearly rushed out to buy an Xbox One to try it but according to a report from Polygon, it might be coming to the Mac soon.

Apple products have been the go-to brand for creatives for decades, but when Apple was in its infancy Steve Jobs laid the groundwork by heavily investing in a printer of all things.

It was the Laserwriter I that cemented Apple as the hardware supplier of choice for the creative community, but Jobs took some convincing before being sold on the idea of a selling an expensive laser printer.

In the video above, Brady Haran explains how Jobs tried to go with clone fonts to reduce costs, but was ultimately convinced to invest in proper typesetting for the revolutionary Apple Laserwriter I after getting an ultimatum between his prefered Coca-Cola or Pepsi. Brady can be a bit of a rambling charmer, so jump to the 6min mark.

Via: Gizmodo

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!