Frogmind’s excellent Badland has just been updated — adding ten new levels to what was already a fantastic game.
For those who haven’t played it before, Badland is well worth downloading. It’s a flapping game, but one that will cleanse your palate of the sour (if slightly addictive) taste of Flappy Bird, thanks to its gorgeous graphics and well-designed level layouts.
Having turned over a new leaf when it comes sustainability, Apple is rightly proud.
So proud, in fact, that it made the surprisingly un-Apple move of opening the doors of its North Carolina data center to NBC’s show, to shine a focus on the building’s pioneering use of renewable energy.
A pair of manga artists have teamed up to create a new ongoing comic series, based on the early collaborations of Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
Although Apple’s early years have been fodder for comic books before, this one isn’t a business management case study — but more of a buddy comedy.
Personally we’re not sure that we see it. Abbott and Costello, Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi, Tommy Chong and Cheech Marin… and Jobs and Wozniak? It doesn’t exactly seem to scream comedy hijinks.
But maybe we’re missing something.
Nifty free voice call and instant messaging service Viber has upgraded to iOS 7.0 with its latest update — incorporating the flat design we’ve come to expect across all iOS apps.
With more than 100 million monthly active users, and having been recently acquired by e-commerce giant Rakuten for $900 million, the upgrade was definitely in order, and it looks great.
That’s not all the update brings, however. It also adds new features to the app — including the ability to send multiple photos at once, as well as the option to create a list of blocked numbers/contacts.
Police in Milan busted an iPad thief who used the device to take photos of himself, apparently unaware that the images could be accessed remotely.
Another piece of the “when will Apple release the iWatch” puzzle may have fallen in to place, with the news that Apple is actively pursuing the iWatch trademark in dozens of countries around the globe.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Apple if it was that straightforward.
Rather than trademarking the term itself, Apple appears to be using a shell company called Brightflash USA LLC to do the work on its behalf.
The firm is registered in Delaware, and has previously been tied to trademarking efforts by Apple. One indicator of the connection between Apple and Brightflash is that it is using the same IP attorney in several locations.
Apple’s latest iPhone 5s ad debuted during last night’s Agents of SHIELD on ABC, and it’s a bit of a mixed bag.
Built around the idea that “You’re more powerful than you think,” the ad shows the iPhone being used to as a tool by people in various lines of work. In this way, it’s very reminiscent of Apple’s recent “Your Verse” campaign for the iPad.
But while it’s good aspirational fare — with absolutely nothing offensive about it — it also comes across as, well, kind of boring really.
DC Comics comic game, Injustice: Gods Among Us, will be getting a new mobile multiplayer mode and tons of new characters, according to reports coming out of WonderCon.
Developed by NetherRealm and published by Warner Brothers, the fighting game is one of a very select few that gets it right on touch-based devices — faithfully translating the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 console game to Apple’s mobile operating system.
Until now, however, playing the game on iOS has been a solitary experience. That looks like it will be rectified in a future game update, as a video from DC All Access reveals a multiplayer mode in the works.
Back in the early 80s Apple greeted the arrival of IBM PCs with a snarky full page newspaper ad reading, “Welcome, IBM. Seriously.”
In the past few years, however, Apple’s claws haven’t come out all that often when it comes to taking rivals down a peg or two.
In fact, most of the recent sideways swipes involving Apple tend to be other companies (normally Samsung) taking shots at Apple, rather than the other way around.
Well, the tables have turned in a new print ad which appeared in the UK’s Guardian and free commuter paper Metro today.
Like any good Apple product, there isn’t too much publicly confirmed about Jobs — the forthcoming movie about Apple’s late CEO, penned by Social Network screenwriter Aaron Sorkin.
However, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter did take a moment on Monday to shed a bit more light on the project, while answering questions at New York City’s School of Visual Arts for the Tribeca Film Festival.
Describing the script as “one of the very few times I ended up writing what I set out to write,” Sorkin noted that it will reveal both the positive and negative aspects of Jobs’ persona, as detailed in the 2011 Walter Isaacson biography, of which this is a (loose) adaptation.
To celebrate the fact that April 22 is Earth Day, Apple has updated its logo to include a green leaf, as seen in the above picture of Apple’s giant Nanjing East retail store in Shanghai.
2014 is the first time in eight years that Apple has celebrated Earth Day. In addition to the revised logo, Apple will also give employes at selected stores special Earth Day shirts to wear. A special event is additionally planned to take place in Cupertino.
Is Nike going to be teaming with Apple for the iWatch?
Ever since Nike announced the surprising news that it was scrapping its rival fitness-tracking FuelBand line of wearables — including a new, slimmer device planned for this fall — the rumor mill has been buzzing with suggestions that Nike is now positioned perfectly to partner Apple for its long-awaited iWatch.
Here’s why it makes sense:
Google Glass wearers who also use an iPhone will get a convenient update later this week.
As per a new post on the Google+ page for the device, the update will let iPhone users see text messages directly on Glass — without having to take the phone out of their pocket first. In Google’s words:
iOS fans, by popular demand you can now get texts from your friends on Glass. Get started by going to your iPhone’s Bluetooth settings and turning on “Show Notifications” for your paired Glass. When you receive a new text message, it will appear as a notification on Glass. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to reply from Glass due to some limitations with iOS. (Android fans, don’t feel left out – you’ve got SMS on Glass already.)
If there are two things you’re likely to hear from Monument Valley players it’s this: “Wow, what an incredibly original game” and “That didn’t take long to complete.”
Both statements are totally factual. Ustwo’s puzzle game masterpiece is one of the most original games of the year, but also an experience that flies by all too quickly.
With that in mind, the developers have confirmed that they are, in fact, working on extra levels to bolster the game.
But they’re not just doing this for the sake of doing it. According to Neil McFarland, ustwo’s director of games:
Apple has released its latest commercial, and it’s a doozy.
Called “Better,” the ad (which is narrated by Tim Cook) refers to Apple’s work in terms of its environmental efforts — describing the company’s push to reduce its carbon footprint, conserve resources, and inspire others to follow suit.
Come July 1, Mac users running various older versions of OS X won’t have the ability to use their mac.com and me.com addresses to log into the AOL Instant Messaging service via iChat.
Apple says that users who want to take advantage of the service must upgrade to at least OS X Lion 10.7.2.
iOS devices might be ruining your child’s ability to play with building blocks, according to a recent report.
Members of the UK’s Association of Teachers and Lecturers claim that addiction to iPad and iPhones mean that children aged between 3 and 4 have no problem swiping a screen, but have difficulty understanding real space, and possess “little or no” dexterity in their fingers.
“I have spoken to a number of nursery teachers who have concerns over the increasing numbers of young pupils who can swipe a screen but have little or no manipulative skills to play with building blocks or the like, or the pupils who cannot socialize with other pupils but whose parents talk proudly of their ability to use a tablet or smartphone,” says teacher Colin Kinner.
One more way that Apple is challenging Google is by pushing for exclusive games on iOS, claims a new report.
The Wall Street Journal reports that as Android’s influence has grown, Apple has been offering games developers promotional perks — such as premium placement on their app store home pages — in exchange for first rights to particular titles.
Last August, Apple struck a deal with EA to receive a two-month exclusivity window for Plants vs. Zombies 2, which did not arrive on Android until November.
A similar deal saw the popular sequel to ZeptoLab’s puzzle game Cut the Rope arrive on iOS in December — but not make it to Android until late March this year.
To be or not to be? That’s the question posed by Sometimes You Die, a game powered by existential angst that’s tearing up the charts.
The game — which is based on the question of how much of the gaming experience you can strip away and still have the end result be fun — has become the surprise hit of 2014, despite (or perhaps because of) its unusual take on life, death and the meaning of video games.
Now Philipp Stollenmayer, a 22-year-old developer who lives in the Netherlands, has opened his sketchbooks to show Cult of Mac how Sometimes You Die came to life.
A new malware campaign targetting users of jailbroken iOS devices has been discovered by reddit users.
Called “Unflod Baby Panda,” the malware hooks into all running processes of jailbroken devices and tries to steal their Apple ID and corresponding password.
Security firm SektionEins had the following to say about the malware:
[It] appears to have Chinese origin and comes as a library called Unflod.dylib that hooks into all running processes of jailbroken iDevices and listens to outgoing SSL connections.
From these connections it tries to steal the device’s Apple-ID and corresponding password and sends them in plaintext to servers with IP addresses in control of US hosting companies for apparently Chinese customers.
Nike is dismantling the hardware team behind its FuelBand fitness tracker, according to a new report from CNET.
The sportswear company, which features Tim Cook on its board of executives, reportedly fired between 70 and 80% of the 70-person hardware team on Thursday.
Despite being Cult of Mac’s resident comic book fan, I’ll admit that I was apprehensive about Gameloft’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
A movie tie-in (strike one), based on a sequel to a totally uninspiring reboot (strike two), and developed by a team who haven’t always had the best reputation for turning out quality products (strike three) — those three facts combined meant that my spider-sense regarding which games to be excited about, shouldn’t have exactly been ringing at the prospect of this title.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is the sequel to (believe it or not!) Gameloft’s 2012 The Amazing Spider-Man. That game was actually better than many expected, however, and from the looks of the sequel’s teaser trailer, the developers have been hard at work to make this a stronger follow-up.
So is it as “Amazing” as the title would have you believe?
Well-known Dutch designer and concept artist Martin Hajek has created a new iPhone 6 rendering, which might just be the most accurate one to date.
Hajek had previously teamed up with Nowherelse to create a stunning mock-up based on the recently leaked schematics discovered by Macotakara apparently showing the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch variants of the iPhone 6.
With the recent case leak, Hajek revised his designs to show everything we currently know (or think we know) about Apple’s next iPhone.
Move over FarmVille, Candy Crush and all those other freemium games whose developers (presumably) sleep on top of a pile of money with beautiful ladies in it — we may have a new contender for app overlord of 2014.
Blizzard’s turn-based iPad game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft was released Thursday, but already it’s the No. 1 most downloaded game in 36 countries, and the most downloaded app overall in 34 countries.
Apple isn’t being valued as a creative leap company so much as it is a predictable cash machine, says former CEO John Sculley.
Speaking with India’s Economic Times about the launch of his latest venture, pCell — a technology that allows huge amounts of data to travel on spectrum-crunched wireless networks, while offering faster speeds and fewer call drops to customers — Sculley gave his opinion of Apple’s current situation:
“Google and Apple are like ATMs, they just keep generating cash. Google takes more risk than Apple. Apple tends to stay the course, and this year is a very big year for Apple in terms of products. It’s not clear that they’re going to demonstrate a creative leap this year despite the products, like they did when Steve Jobs was leader. I think it’s probably unfair to expect them to have a creative leap every five years.”