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John Brownlee - page 16

Tim Cook makes sizable donation to help gay rights in Alabama

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Tim Cook leaves the stage at the end of the 2014 WWDC keynote. Photo: Roberto Baldwin/The Next Web
Photo: Roberto Baldwin/The Next Web
Photo: Roberto Baldwin/The Next Web

Apple CEO Tim Cook is the most powerful (openly) gay man in America, and also the first openly gay CEO of a Fortune 500 company. As such, he’s done a lot for gay rights during his interim at Apple, and now he’s doing even more, making a sizable personal donation to a gay rights campaign in his home state of Alabama, as well as Arkansas and Mississippi.

After hacks, Sony’s ‘stuck in 1992’ … except for Mac users

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All of Sony's computers, bar iOS devices and Macs, are now behind bars. Photo: Techcrunch
All of Sony's computers, bar iOS devices and Macs, are now behind bars. Photo: Techcrunch

After an attack by a group of hackers-slash-cyber-terrorists, Sony Pictures is having a rough time. Countless embarrassing details about the organization — including executive salaries and salacious emails — have leaked to the media. Even worse, threats against theatergoers have caused Sony to pull The Interview — an upcoming Sony movie that is the motive of the hack — from distribution.

Behind the scenes, though, things are just as anarchic. According to a new report, Sony Pictures is now “stuck in 1992” at least as far as IT is concerned. But those on iOS or a Mac have gotten off much better.

iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Retina iMac ship times shrink away to nothing

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Apple ship times are sliding. Photo: Cult of Mac
Apple ship times are sliding. Photo: Cult of Mac

Still haven’t gotten the most important person in your life a Christmas gift? Great news. Right before the holidays, Apple has dropped the ship times on several popular items — including the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Retina iMac — so that if you order them now, they’ll be on your doorstep in time for Christmas.

How to download Apple’s iWork apps on older Macs for free

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Screen Shot 2014-12-13 at 10.28.16 AM
Here's how to get the iWork suite for free on older Macs. Photo: Cult of Mac

If you bought a Mac from 2013 on, you can download the iWork suite of apps — Pages, Keynote and Numbers — from the Mac App Store absolutely free. But what if you bought an older Mac? You have to pay, and they’re expensive, running $19.99 each.

Thankfully, there’s a trick you can use to download iWork apps from the App Store for free. Here’s how.

How to turn Apple’s best keyboard into a fully-functional PC

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The Apple Extended Keyboard II
You can turn your Apple Extended Keyboard into a full computer. Photo: University of Chicago
Photo: University of Chicago

We never cease to be amazed at all the amazing DIY projects that Mac fans do with old Apple hardware. Case in point: see this vintage Apple Extended Keyboard? It’s not hooked to a computer. It is a computer, thanks to the embedded Rapsberry Pi inside.

Auxo, the superpowered app switcher, is coming to iOS 8

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Back in the skeuomorphic days of iOS 6, we were big fans of Auxo, an innovative iPhone app switcher that supercharged the iOS multitasking bar with live app previews, gestures, settings toggles, and more.

When iOS 7 was released, Auxo was updated to support Apple’s newer, flatter operating system, but it’s only now that Auxo creator Sentry_NC is getting around to update it to iOS 8.

Apple relents, restores Transmit for iOS’s ‘Send To’ feature

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Transmit by Panic is back on the App Store with its full functionality restored. Photo: Panic
Transmit by Panic is back on the App Store with its full functionality restored. Photo: Panic

On Monday, we reported that Apple has yanked Transmit from the App Store over a weird iCloud Drive rule.

The app, from beloved Mac and iOS developer Panic, allowed you to upload content from iCloud Drive, which is seemingly obvious functionality for a file transfer and FTP app like Transmit to have. But Apple objected, and not only made Transmit pull the “Send to iCloud” option, but the ability to send documents to other services and apps.

But good news! Transmit’s back on the App Store with the “Send to iCloud Drive” functionality restored.

Google’s iOS app gets an Android-like makeover

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Google Search for iOS gets a Material Design make over. Photo: Google
Google Search for iOS gets a Material Design make over. Photo: Google

First debuted with Android L, Material Design is Google’s new in-house unified design ethos, Material Design. Boiled down, it’s a series of UI/UX tricks that makes Google’s web properties not feel unified with one another, but like digital paper, folding and unfolding underneath your fingertips no matter what device you use.

Android L, of course, has already seen a Material Design revamp, but now we’re starting to see Material Design creep to Google’s iOS app.

Papers, Please is coming to the iPad on Friday

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One of the most cerebral Mac games is now on iPad. Photo: Lucas Pope
One of the most cerebral Mac games is coming to iPad this Friday. Photo: Lucas Pope

When it comes to video games that will make you think, few are as cerebral as “dystopian document thriller” Papers, Please, a Mac game released in 2013. It casts the player as a passport inspector for a fictional Soviet bloc state who must keep track of increasingly arcane rules to let people in or out of the country … even when a mistake can cost him his life.

We declared Papers, Please one of the best freakin’ Mac games of 2013, but if you didn’t play it then, good news: It’s coming to the iPad this week.

Why Retina iMacs can’t stream 4K Netflix

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Watch out Netflix, Apple might start making shows too.
You can watch 4K video on your TV, but not your Retina iMac. Why? Photo: Netflix
Photo: Netflix

Yesterday, Amazon announced that they would begin streaming Amazon Prime movies in 4K Ultra HD, free of charge. This follows an announcement by Netflix in March that they would allow subscribers to stream 4K shows in Ultra HD for a small additional charge every month.

Of course, neither the iPhone, iPad, or the Apple TV support 4K video… but the new iMacs with Retina Display do. Yet despite this, Netflix and Amazon don’t actually stream 4K video to the Retina iMac. The best you can get is plain old 1080p.

What’s the deal? The same as it ever is. DRM.

First-gen iPhone 2G is now going for $12,500 on eBay

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Screenshot: Cult of Mac
Screenshot: Cult of Mac

Back when it was released in 2007, the original iPhone 2G cost $599 with a two-year contract from AT&T. Seven years later, boxed first-gen iPhones are a little rare, but if you’ve got the dosh, you can still buy one on eBay.

But prepare to be shocked by the sticker price: An original iPhone in mint condition will cost you $12,500.

Is Apple planning on being a Scrooge this year?

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Where is 12 Days of Gifts? Photo: Apple
Where is 12 Days of Gifts? Photo: Apple

Last year, Apple celebrated the holidays with a fantastic app called 12 Days of Gifts. Like a digital advent calendar, the 12 Days of Gift apps handed out free music, TV shows, movies, books, and apps over the holiday period.

But this year, we haven’t seen the 12 Days of Gifts app, at least so far. Is Apple canceling it? What’s the hold up?

Maybe Apple killed off the iPod Classic too soon?

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Photo: Apple
Photo: Apple

After years without updates, September 9th was a sad day for iPod fans: it marked the formal extinction of the iPod Classic, the last of Apple’s chunky, non-flash-based music players.

Three months after the last iPod Classic was sold through Apple.com, though? The iPod Classic is more in demand — and more expensive — than ever.

How to jailbreak iOS 8.1.1

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There's a new jailbreak in town. Screenshot: Cult of Mac
There's a new jailbreak in town. Screenshot: Cult of Mac

Here’s how the game of iOS cat-and-mouse jailbreak works. A team releases a working jailbreak for the most recent version of iOS to the public. Apple moves to eliminate the exploit that made the last jailbreak possible, releases a new version of iOS, and stops ‘signing’ previous jailbreakable versions of iOS, meaning they can no longer be installed on devices. Rinse and repeat.

The last version of iOS, iOS 8.1.1, closed the hole that made the Pangu jailbreak possible. But now a new jailbreak has been released, that will jailbreak iOS 8.1.1 on any device. Here’s how to install it.

This app lets you unlock your Mac with Touch ID

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Unlock your Mac with TouchID! Photo: FingerKey
Unlock your Mac with TouchID! Photo: FingerKey

First introduced with the iPhone 5s, Apple’s Touch ID fingerprint sensor is one of the easiest and most convenient ways to unlock your iPhone and iPad. And now, thanks to a new app, it’s also one of the easiest and most convenient ways to unlock your Mac.

How to fix OS X Yosemite’s annoying, overflowing save sheet bug

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Another annoying Yosemite bug. Screenshot: Cult of Mac
Another annoying Yosemite bug. Screenshot: Cult of Mac

Since installing OS X Yosemite, I’ve had a problem: Every time I try to save anything in Chrome, the Save Sheet interface is so long it runs off the screen, making it impossible for me to click “OK” or “Cancel.” I assumed it was something I had done, but nope, it’s a particularly annoying Yosemite bug. Here’s how to fix it.

A third of Steve Jobs’ patents have been awarded since his death

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Steve Jobs's first patent for a 'Personal Computer.' Photo: US Patent Office
Steve Jobs's first patent for a 'Personal Computer.' Photo: US Patent Office

Steve Jobs was a visionary, a futurist and a business genius … but he was also an inventor with more than 458 patents to his name. What better way to spend this holiday weekend than getting yourself up to speed with the inventions of one of the most prolific patenters of the 20th century?