Facebook continues to embrace virtual reality (VR) on its ubiquitous social networking platform with 360-degree video support for iOS. Zuckerberg’s big blue is also opening up its VR platform to advertisers, like AT&T, Corona , Samsung, and Walt Disney World, in the form of “immersive stories.”
Not every Apple TV is in a household full of self-realized adults. Apple knows this and has set up some restrictions, similar to the parental controls on iOS.
That way, you can make sure that your kids aren’t purchasing anything (or playing/watching anything) without your consent.
Here’s how to set it all up on your Apple TV.
I sadly gave away my favorite wallet case when I upgraded to the iPhone 6 Plus.
Since then, I keep ending up at the store or almost running out of gas without my wallet with me: I leave it at home all the time. Apparently, I’m constitutionally incapable of remembering my ID, cash, and cards.
This Q Card Case, from CM4, is the perfect solution.
You can of course check the status of your Apple Watch battery on your wrist, but it’s even easier to discover how much Apple Watch juice you have left right from your iPhone.
In fact, you can check the battery status of anything connected via Bluetooth, including headphones and speakers.
Here’s how.
The latest trend in news consumption is curation. Apple News — replacement for the earlier, less-than-successful Newsstand — does just that. It may not be the first app to repackage the web for easy reading (looking at you, Flipboard), nor maybe even the best, but chances are it’s already on everyone’s iOS 9 iPhone or iPad, making it a clear winner for mindshare.
News is pretty fantastic, as it allows you to customize and set up the News channels and outlets you want to check on regularly without having to rely on any specific outlet for updates. News pulls from your favorite websites RSS feeds and repackages it all in an intuitive, newspaper and magazine-like format for easy browsing and reading.
Let’s take a look at how to set it up and use the iOS 9 News app to your best advantage.
If you’ve ever carried around one of those tube-shaped power packs for your iPhone or iPad, you know the one thing it really needs is a way to tell how much juice is left in the thing.
The Power Tube 3000 provides this in spades, with a simple three-light display on the tube itself and an app that lets you know exactly how much power you have left — and what that translates to in terms of usage.
You know how it is — you unlock your iPhone with Touch ID so fast that you miss some important Notifications. You swipe down from the top of your iOS device’s screen to see what you missed and — ugh — you realize that your Notifications are sorted by app. How will you ever figure out which new Notification you missed?
Luckily, there’s a fairly simple way to get your iPhone and iPad to list your Notifications in date order, assuring you never miss one again.
Here’s how.
If you’ve tried to type in any sort of long password or search terms into your new Apple TV using the fancy Siri Remote, you know you’ve had a tough time.
Even if you adjust the tracking to make it a little more accurate, scrolling through letters and clicking on the touch surface can be a nightmare of inaccurate clicks and missed targets.
The fine folks over at The Loop found a different way to navigate single items like this, and it’s totally amazing.
You had me at “ruined continent.”
Overland is an upcoming 3D survival tactics game from the creator of Canabalt, Adam Saltzman. Its beautiful, chillingly-chromatic art style has me itching to play it, as does the cool way the team has created an approachable rogue-like set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland without dumbing it down.
Check out the video below, with Saltzman’s narration.
Happy Friday, everyone! That of course means another Cult of Mac Magazine positively brimming with amazing how-to, news, and feature articles to keep you informed and entertained all weekend long.
We’ve got a fair pile of Apple TV how-tos aimed at getting you set up and running hot with Apple’s new set-top box, as well as a round up of the five best games to play on your big screen and several hidden tricks you need to know about the new Siri Remote.
We hope you like all that and a ton more in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine, the best slice of Apple news and info this side of Cupertino. Be sure to grab yourself a copy today.
Here’s the rundown for this week.
You know that Apple TV is a great set-top box that allows you to play games, watch TV shows and movies, and even listen to Apple Music streams.
What you may not have known is that you can connect Bluetooth speakers so that you don’t bother your roommates or family when you’re watching, enhance dialogue, and even change the audio language on supported media.
Here’s how to do all that, from the comfort of your couch with the new Siri Remote.
Apple TV’s killer feature is the App Store. And with an App Store comes games.
I don’t care what near-sighted gaming sites are saying. Sure, Apple’s new box doesn’t have a whole lot of gaming content yet, but it has some great offerings if you poke around a bit. I’m finding games for the new Apple TV that never grabbed my attention when they were on my iPhone or iPad, but seeing them up on the big screen pulled me right in.
Which are the best games for the Apple TV to check out right now, though? Here are our five favorites, in no particular order. Note that the links below will take you to the iTunes App Store. If you purchase them with the same iTunes ID you have set up on your Apple TV, they’ll appear in the “Purchased” tab of the little black puck’s App Store. Alternately, you can search for the game name directly from your TV.
Like all well-designed products from the Apple mothership, the new Apple TV’s remote, also known as the Siri remote, looks simple but contains a surprising amount of depth.
Sure, you might know that one press on the Menu button will take you back one screen, but what about all the other secret moves (like how to restart your Apple TV with the buttons)?
Luckily, we’re here to help you discover all the secrets of the Siri remote. Today, let’s look at the buttons and their hidden features.
Your Apple TV remote is an amazing little device that lets you manage your big TV exerience. There are quite a few little settings you may have missed, though, when you started up your new Apple TV.
You can adjust and tweak your way through the Apple TV settings to make the most of your time with the remote, including monitoring its battery, adjusting accessibility options, and — yes — even figuring out what Siri commands you can use.
Here are five of them, just for you.
We’ve all seen those horrendously long Terms and Conditions documents with every bit of Apple software we download, including the iTunes Terms and Conditions.
But what if you could see them in an illustrated version? We all might read them in that case.
These illustrated panels, each drawn in a different comic book style after famous other cartoonists, put Steve Jobs front and center of the otherwise dry, dusty legal disclaimers from Apple.
Totally worth a look, right?
The new Apple TV remote is a thing of beauty. It’s got six simple buttons, it’s rechargeable and it features a beautifully simple touchpad at the top to swipe across menus, app icons and letters to enter passwords.
But the simple joy of using the touchpad is very Apple-like. There are hidden secrets to the surface uses, with
Here’s how to get the most out of your Apple TV remote touchpad.
The new Apple TV remote is a wondrous touch- and motion-enabled trackpad with a few simple buttons that lets you do everything on your new black hockey puck of joy, including playing games, swiping through apps, and, well, playing and pausing your movies and TV shows.
What happens when you lose it somewhere in the depths of your couch, though? The iPhone Remote app no longer works with the new Apple TV, and unless you have an Apple Store nearby, you’re gonna want to have a backup plan in place.
Might as well take a couple of minutes and set up your regular old TV remote to work with Apple TV, right?
Here’s how.
I’ve always wanted to go into space. The now-familiar view of our “big blue marble” have always fascinated and entranced me, even as a young boy.
With Earthlapse TV, I can stare out of a virtual window from the International Space Station to watch the coast of Northern Australia spin past my high viewpoint, see the aurora borealis as it shimmers above the northern hemisphere, or watch as the world turns from London to Africa beneath my gaze.
This is a gorgeous app and a perfect fit for the big-screen TV in my living room.
The new Apple TV is out and it’s pretty fantastic.
Running through setup is fairly simple, but we all could use a little advice on how best to make our choices along the way.
With that in mind, then, let’s run through the Apple TV arrangements in order.
It’s finally here! The Apple TV we’ve all been waiting for should be arriving in homes across the world today. We’ve got our review of the cute little black box, plus a ton more, including the biggest takeaways from Apple’s recent earnings call, how Google is facing its own Bendgate issues, 10 delightful new iOS games from the month of October, and how to get those gorgeous Apple TV screensavers right on your Mac.
All that, plus the usual plethora of news, reveiws, and how-tos, and you’ve got yourself a hot new free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Be sure to download our fantastic app today.
Here’s the rundown of the top stories this week:
Power banks and external batteries are everywhere these days, including airports, drug stores and (my favorite) at the Apple Store. I’ve used quite a few of them and, while many are kind of cheaply made, a few are pretty well-designed and useful.
Quarter’s Super Charge Powerbank is one of the latter. Just 15 minutes hooked to your MacBook MagSafe power adapter cord will give it enough juice to fully charge your iPhone. You can charge with a typical micro-USB cable, too, but you won’t get that fast a top-off.
While you may chat about state secrets while on your Mac at work, you might not want your chats to get out there or be archived. The answer is to use encryption so no one can intercept your messages and figure out you’re really angry at your boss.
The Tor Project aims to make anonymous, off-the-record chats simple with a new instant messenger app you can run on your Mac or Windows PC. Simply run the app (now in beta), log in to your preferred instant messaging service or services, and talk about whatever you want, secure in the knowledge that your chats are safe from your boss’ prying eyes.
If you’ve got an Apple TV, you’ve got a ready way to get any videos from your iPhone or iPad onto your big screen.
While we all wait for the latest version of Apple’s famous “hobby,” why not watch a video or two on our current Apple TV, right from our iOS device of choice.
Here’s how to AirPlay videos from your iPhone to your giant TV.
There are times you want to protect your precious Apple Watch from the extreme abuse you put it through each day — welding, chopping down trees, building your own car, the usual — and there are times you want to make a fashion statement that’s larger than life.
Lunatik’s Epik aluminum Apple Watch case and watchband combo can do both those things for you. The outsize aluminum case bolts around your Apple Watch, and the seriously metal link watch band will make you the envy of every other badass.
At a strategic briefing for investors today in Tokyo, Nintendo CEO Tatsumi Kimishima took to the podium to talk about the game-maker’s plans for the near future, including, we hope, information on the venerable company’s foray into mobile gaming on iPhones, iPads, and possibly Android devices.
The new service — blandly called “Nintendo Account” — will connect console, PC, and smart device users in a way that has never been seen before in Nintendo’s history.