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The brand-new version of AirServer is being billed as “The Game Console For Mac.” Like previous versions of the software, AirServer runs on you Mac and turns it into an AirPlay receiver, allowing you to stream music, video, photos and even games to the Mac’s big screen, just as if it was an Apple TV. What’s new, though, is the ability to stream games from two players simultaneously for big-screen head-to-head action.
There is one huge problem with iPad styluses: the rubber tips tend to drag or even stick on the screen, especially when the screen gets greasy (which is always). Some styluses are better than others: The Wacom Bamboo manages to glide right up until Peak Filth, and the latest Alupen Pro comes with instructions to never touch the tip with your fingers (as you’d expect, I touched it immediately and often after reading that).
But the TruGlide Stylus takes a different take altogether: it ditches the rubber and replaces it with something that looks like a tiny metal scouring pad. Only it doesn’t scour — it glides.
Remember the Glif? It was probably the first Kickstarter project to take off, and of course it was an iPhone photography accessory. The original Glif probably went on to make its creators — Studio Neat –billionaires, and now it’s back, in the form of the Glif Plus. And what’s more, it comes with a bunch of bad new typography-based puns.
Type “Mother’s Day” into Google and right above the search results it’ll say “Mother’s Day is on Sunday, May 13, 2012.” Put it in your diary, order some flowers and get ready to spend some money on the woman who gave the best part of her life just so you could sit around reading sites like Cult of Mac on your iPhone.
To help you repay her frankly pointless sacrifice, here’s our Grand Cult of Mac Mother’s Day Gift Guide 2012, the best and most definitive gift advice guide you’ll read this year. Whether you mother is a nerd, a technophobe, a globetrotting traveller or just plain lazy, we’ve got you covered. There’s a Mac- or iOS-centric gift for every kind of Mom in here… even yours! Read on:
Today we have the perfect video to satisfy a very particular demographic. If you love the whole 8-Bit aesthetic, and yet remain confused by the interactions of the three basics of photographic exposure — aperture, shutter speed and ISO — then sit back, relax and hit the play button on the Vimeo video above.
TriggerTrap is another app which works with an accessory cable to remote trigger you DSLR. Compared to other trigger app/cable combos, TriggerTrap distinguishes itself by also triggering the iPhone’s own camera, should you wish, and by its crazy range of triggering modes.
VSCO’s Cam is a film emulation app for the iPhone and iPad (pixel doubled). It is also one of the new generation of “serious” iPhone camera apps which capture uncompressed JPG files before applying filters, for a much higher quality end product.
Custom molded headphones are — it turns out — pretty great. But what a pain to visit an audiologist and get silicone injected into your ear-holes. What if there was a fun, geeky way to do it yourself, in the comfort of your own home?
Thanks to SonoFit Eers, there is. I tested out the $300 PC250 headphones and found the fitting process to be kind of freaky and fun, and the results to be quite excellent. Read on to see just how they work, and how good they sound.
Incase’s Box Case for the iPhone is just that: a boxy, sharp-cornered rubber case with a brutalist minimalism that wouldn’t look out of place on London’s South Bank. And not only does the thing look awesome, it also offers quite a bit of protection thanks to all the extra rubber at the corners. It’s probably not a good idea to start tossing your iPhone on the floor, but if it does accidentally drop, then it might at least bounce to a safe end.
If you want a great Simplenote-compatible, note taking app for your Mac, then you should download the free and excellent Notational Velocity. If you want a harder to use, bigger and — some might say — uglier app to do the same thing, then Metanota is just the thing for you.
At last, here’s the Apple TV everyone is waiting for. Well, kinda. Bang & Olufsen’s new V1 is a 32 or 40-inch 1080p TV with a hole in the back where you can hide your little puck-sized Apple TV. This, combined with a remote that can be used to control Apple’s set-top box, means that the V1 is the closest you’ll get to an actual HDTV from Apple.
How do you like the idea of a solar-powered iPad keyboard case? Sounds pretty neat, right? What’s even better is that it comes from Logitech, a company that already makes some great iPad keyboards, so at least we know that the keyboard itself won’t be marred by mushiness.
Penultimate, one of the two best pen-and-paper apps for the iPad, has gotten a Retina upgrade. This is a pretty big deal, as the feel and look of the ink, plus the responsiveness of the app, are what make it so great. Now, with super-smooth, hi-res graphics, can it keep its crown?
Spigen’s all-glass iPhone and iPad screen protectors use some special kind of silicone gloop to stick them in place, but that same gloop can be found in one of Spigen’s cases. It’s called the Diary, and as it consists of just one sheet of folded leather, it’s about as minimal as you can get. It’s also pretty classy, and has one huge, glaring omission.
If you have been thinking about dipping a photographic toe into the contrasty, blurred waters of Lensbaby’s lenses, and you happen to have $750 (but not $805) lying around the house with nothing to spend it on, then perhaps you might consider the Pro Effects Kit, a bundle of some of Lensbaby’s funnest gear, all in its own special bag.
Merely two years after the launch of the iPad, Spotify has finally released a big-screen edition of everybody’s favorite music-streaming app. In short, it works a lot like Twitter for the iPad, and it doesn’t have Spotify apps. The app is Universal, so when it hits the store (it’s still not showing up in some places), it will do so as an update, and while it is free, you’ll need to be a paid Spotify subscriber to use it.
SloPro is an app that magically makes the iPhone’s video camera shoot at 60 frames per second. And while the developers are being coy and refusing to reveal the mechanics behind it, the product does indeed let you double the camera’s frame rate, and therefore let you shoot some excellent slow-motion footage.
Do you carry a backup battery, a camera connection kit and a charger with you in your man-sack? Yeah, me too, and it’s really no big deal as even together they weight almost nothing. But if you’d rather combine these items into one easy-to-lose box, then the Cellink I is just the thing for you.
I can’t be sure, as I was a brainless, sieve-memoried child at the time, but I’m pretty sure that our family’s first portable (B&W) TV had a screen that wasn’t much bigger than the screen of my iPad. Still, the crappy picture and bulbous, almost circular screen didn’t stop my brother and I laying belly-down on the end of our parent’s bed and watching Monkey roll up the screen in a fuzz of snow and bad reception.
Now I can relive those dark days by putting my iPad into the Handmade Natural Stained Wood Retro TV iPad Dock, an Etsy product whose name is as good as a description.
If you have been reading Ken Segall’s new book about Apple, Insanely Simple, then you’ll recognize the hallmarks of simplicity all over JawBone’s work. Even the e-mail containing the press release for its new speaker reads as little more than “Jawbone just released a BIG JAMBOX.”
That’s what it’s called. The BIG JAMBOX. And from its name, you know almost all there is to know about it.
Take a look under your desk at that power-strip. My guess is that, even though it is probably overloaded with another power-strip plugged into it, there are at least a couple of spare sockets. It’s not that you don’t need them — it’s that you can use them thanks to all the awkward-shaped adapters jammed into it. If only you could bend and twist your power-strip to get better access to its hard-to-reach holes…
Remember the IKEA cardboard camera that popped up in a Milan press goody-bag last week? It turns out that it was actually a thing — IKEA is billing it as the “world’s cheapest digital camera,” and it should be going on sale in the Swedish giant’s labyrinthine stores soon.
Going camping this spring? And by “camping” I mean hiking or biking with your home on your back, and heading out into the wilderness. I don’t mean loading up your SUV and dragging a grill, a tent the size of a European house and enough ball games to keep an entire schools-worth of kids occupied for a month.
So, if you’re heading out under your own power, how about taking a stove that a) requires no liquid fuel, b) burns fast and hot and c) charges your iPhone? What’s not to like?
Who says iPad keyboards have to run on Bluetooth? Not MacAlly, that’s for sure. The iKey30 is a good ol’ USB keyboard which sports a 30-pin dock connector on the end of its cable, and comes with an almost ridiculous number of special function keys.
Bluetooth OnOff, an incredibly useful app which does one thing — toggle your iPhone’s Bluetooth connection on and off — has inevitably been pulled from the App Store. The 99-cent Universal app used private APIs to work its magic, and is now sadly consigned to the trashcan, along with data-tethering apps and other much-missed utilities.