Rob LeFebvre - page 14

Whereas most websites these days — Cult of Mac included — are responsive to whatever device you’re browsing on, there are still a few websites out there that will serve you a special mobile version when you head there on your iPhone.

Unfortunately, sometimes the functionality of the full desktop version of the website is missing from the mobile version. When that happens, you can use the iOS 9 version of Safari to get the full desktop versions even when the web developers don’t provide a link to do so.

Here’s how.

Bill Hader eats a hamburger while getting Siri to read him his email in this new fun video from Apple. The message from “Prince Oseph” offers Hader a life-changing opportunity, and having his iPhone read it really shows off the “Hey Siri” functionality in iOS 9.

Nerd cred: Obviously, Hader is using an iPhone 6s, because Hey Siri only works when not connected to power on the latest iteration of Apple’s flagship smartphone.

Check out the full ad below.

Every day, I delete files. Usually, they’re images or screenshots I download or use for my work here at Cult of Mac. These kinds of files pile up across a full day, and I just want to get rid of them to de-clutter my workspace.

Even if I use the Command-Delete keyboard shortcut to get them to the Trash, I still need to empty the Trash (with Shift-Command-Delete), making this a two-step process.

OS X El Capitan brings a feature that lets me skip one of these steps. Here’s how to delete your files immediately using your El Capitan-enabled Mac.

Best List: AudioOHM RNF earbuds by GOgroove

My kids are constantly breaking their earbuds. Whether a pair of Apple’s pack-in EarPods or a $40 pair of neon green ‘buds from Best Buy, anything they use ends up with frayed and broken wires.

These ruggedized earbuds from GOgroove, however, withstood both teens — and I’m still able to use them. Plus? They sound really great for the price.

I’m a big fan of getting instructions off the internet: recipes, directions on car maintenance, or video game walkthroughs, for example. The problem is that you need to be online to view them.

Now in iOS 9, however, there’s a way to save web pages to a handy, offline-friendly PDF file. The next time you’re flying on an airplane and trying to get through Broken Age with a walkthrough, you’ll be in luck.

Here’s how to convert any webpage in iOS 9’s mobile Safari to a PDF and then read it in (or send it from) iBooks.

Best List: Retro Alarm Clock Radio by Electrohome

Experts say you need to minimize distraction from your smartphones and tablets at night, so I’ve started leaving my iPhone charging in the kitchen. Instead, I now wake up to NPR thanks to this gorgeously retro alarm clock radio from Electrohome.

It’s got everything you need to get you up at the right time, plus a host of features that make it the only alarm clock you’ll ever need.

Where can you buy weed legally? What kind of marijuana is best for you? What are the laws concerning pot use in your neck of the woods? Potent new marijuana apps make it easy to answer all your sticky weed questions.

We’ve harvested the best marijuana apps so you don’t have to pick through the seeds and stems yourself.

Happy weekend, everyone! We’ve got another insane issue of Cult of Mac Magazine for you this week, full of details on Apple’s new iMac, Magic peripherals, the best updates in iWork’s new update, fresh how-tos, product reviews, and a sad goodbye to one of Apple’s ultimate fans.

All this (and plenty more!) in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine – be sure to download your own copy of our fantastic app today.

Here’s the latest top stories for this week.

Best List: Nomad Apple Watch Strap

Let’s face it: The green plastic band I have for my Apple Watch Sport is useful and comfortable, but it’s not classy. I wear it to the gym with no reservations, but a night out on the town? Maybe if I were an adolescent.

When I strap Nomad’s new Italian leather replacement band to my wrist, however, I finally feel like a grownup. This is one beautiful Apple Watch strap.

Only found in the New York and San Francisco Apple retail stores, this new tactile table really shows off the new 3D Touch features of the just released iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.

As you can see in the video below, Apple’s got its new iPhones displayed on a new table that replicates the ripples from the fish videos shown on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus devices on the table whenever customers push on the iPhones themselves.

It’s pretty slick – check it out.

All three of Apple’s productivity apps just came out of beta on iCloud.com, and Apple’s also updated all of them for both iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan. There’s a host of improvements and fixes both large and small for each app on each platform.

All the full specifications are over at Apple’s productivity suite landing page, but here are ten of the best improvements for this long-running, venerable suite of word processing, presentation, and spreadsheet apps from our favorite Cupertino-based company.

Steve Jobs will be remembered as much for his negative personality traits as for his marketing genius, says Steve Wozniak in a new featurette for the upcoming movie, Steve Jobs.

The Woz waxes nostalgic about his friend and co-founder of Apple as his own recollections are interspersed with scenes and quotes from the movie.

“Steve Jobs is known for having some negative personality characteristics,” says Wozniak, “but did he balance the good with the bad or did the bad lead to the good?”

Check out the video embedded below to hear what Woz thinks.

Dropbox has just entered the competitive space of online collaboration software, and it hopes to overcome its late start with a simple, intuitive tool called Paper.

Currently in private beta, Dropbox’s Paper is part Google Docs and part Slack, which just goes to show you how late the company is — describing a new product with an already ubiquitous competitor is never a sure sign of success.

You might not think of IBM as a Mac-friendly place to work, but Fletcher Previn, VP of Workplace-as-a-Service at IBM might beg to differ.

Previn used to think like you do: that Apple PCs are more expensive, they’re challenging to support, and require a ton of re-training for help desk staff (who serve a 50,000 employee global work force on Windows PCs)

Turns out, that’s all fairly inaccurate.

Best List: AllDock USB charging station by AllDock

I have a gadget-friendly family. We’ve all got an iPhone, a few of us have iPads, and I’ve got an Apple Watch. All of these devices require charging, and all of them need a place to hang out when they’re not being used.

The AllDock is a gorgeous wooden universal charging station that lets me store and charge all the family devices in one location with ease, making it simple to grab any device and use it at a moment’s notice.

Learning a new language is hard work, especially if you’ve been raised in the U.S., which tends to eschew any real multi-lingual literacy.

These days, however, Google Translate lets us all communicate a little more easily across language barriers.

A new update for the app today brings both Split View support for newer iPads along with new instant visual translation languages.

The world just got a little friendlier.

If you’re one of the lucky owners of Tesla’s super-awesome electric cars, you’re also might be one of the fortunate few that get to experience the future today.

Tesla just rolled out an over-the-air update that pushed out a semi-autonomous feature to all of its cars made and sold in the U.S. The roll-out could take up to a week.

Will you get to sit back, sipping a martini while your robot car takes you to your dentist appointment? Not yet, says company CEO Elon Musk.

“It works almost to the point where you can take your hands off,” Musk told Wired, “but we won’t say that. Almost.”

Facebook’s algorithmic nostalgia is all well and good — until it starts pulling up the worst memories you’ve shared. Not everyone wants to be reminded of these awful memories.

Introduced this past March, “On This Day” is a Facebook feature that lets you re-share important digital memories from one year ago. Now you can keep specific people and/or dates from appearing in your feed, thanks to a pair of filters introduced on the social network.

Here’s how to make sure your worst memories aren’t surfaced by Facebook.

Quick – how often do you check your iPhone when you’re around other people? When you’re out dining? At home on the couch, maybe watching TV? At the bar? At parties?

If you’re anything like the rest of us, the answer is somewhere between “often” and “far too often.”

Photographer Eric Pickersgill noticed this phenomenon while sitting at a cafe one morning and decided to make some art about it. He calls the project Removed.

When I lose track of my mouse cursor, I’ve always just wiggled it a bit to find it on the screen. It’s a natural gesture, and Apple’s capitalized on it with its new “shake to find” feature in El Capitan.

If you’re constantly shaking your mouse or swiping quickly on your mousepad, maybe while gaming or editing, the new feature might bug you.

Here’s how to turn it off (and turn it back on again if you want to).

Another week, another fantastic Cult of Mac Magazine ripe for your perusal! We’ve got a ton of stuff on the latest iPhone 6s controversy, unfortunately dubbed “Chipgate,” as well as a deep dive into OS X El Capitan with a tour and some great tips, a head-to-head comparison of Apple TV versus its next big rival, Roku 4, some fear and loathing over the upcoming Steve Jobs biopic, and a sexy (?) power strip and some other fantastic product reviews.

Check it all out in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine, available for download at the incredibly low price of free!

Here’s the rundown for this week’s issue:

Seriously, people, we have families to feed. Kittens to adopt. We need your ad impressions.

The new iOS content blockers, as well as traditional ad-blocking browser plugins, threaten the wallets of every ad-supported website, including Cult of Mac. Luckily, it’s easy to whitelist us (and any other sites you want to support). It’s incredibly easy to restore order to the online universe, whether you’re using an iPhone or a Mac.

I just leveled up while I was driving to pick my kid up from school. I set up a digital battle using my iPhone while sitting in my driveway, hit “Go,” and then just put my iPhone down on my dashboard while I drove to get him.

I’ve been calling these types of games “auto-battlers” for their central feature: letting you skip tedious, grinding gameplay that tends to be a feature of traditional role-playing games. I don’t have time to micromanage my iPhone; chances are neither do most people, which explains the rise of casual gaming over the past five years or so.

Here are three fun mobile games that let you experience more depth than a typical Flappy Bird clone, but still don’t require too much input to enjoy.

Best List: Bullseye guitar effects pedals by GMF

These tiny guitar effects pedals from GMF Music will fit on any pedalboard or stage setup thanks to their unique, top-loading design. Sure, they’re small, but boy do they pack a powerful punch.

All four Bullseye pedals feature a fully shielded steel case (to minimize that hum you’ll hear at most live shows) crammed with some serious circuitry that makes it super-easy to dial in the perfect guitar sound.

Imagine a day when you can turn on your 3D printer and just print out running shoes that match your feet perfectly.

That day may be sooner than you think: sportswear company Adidas let loose a new proof of concept it wants to bring to market soon: 3D-printed running shoes.

Called Futurecraft 3D, this lightweight, high-performance footwear boasts a running shoe midsole that you can tailor to your foot’s own cushioning needs, a clear advantage over buying off the shelf.

Check out the amazing reveal video below.