Rob LeFebvre - page 7

A guy wakes up with no memory of who he is — or who the beautiful scientist outfitting him with a cyborg body is. She tells him his name is Henry and that she’s his wife. Then the bad guys break in and steal her.

Sounds like a video game, right? It’s actually the trippy trailer for a new live-action sci-fi movie called Hardcore Henry. The buzzy indie film was shot using a first-person perspective that puts you in Henry’s shoes — it’s like you’re trapped in a violent videogame, with a super-strong robot hand and other cyborg embellishments.

I waited for a GoPro-type video camera that won’t the break the bank, and happily discovered Vivitar’s DVR 786HD ActionCam fits the bill.

It’s tiny, capable and totally scratches my itch for an easy-to-use video camera to wean me off using up my iPhone’s battery to capture longer videos.

I found one of these ActionCams for around $75 or so on Amazon, and while it doesn’t offer all the extreme insanity of a GoPro, it’s a pretty nifty little camera on its own.

Kanye West takes to streaming service Tidal tomorrow to unveil the latest Yeezy hype: a third line of clothing (Yeezy, Season 3) and a new album, so far titled T.L.O.P.

He’ll put on a show at Madison Square Garden, and even if you’re not a Tidal subscriber, you can check out the new threads and listen to the new tracks starting Thursday February 11 at 4:00 pm Eastern right on Tidal’s home page.

Originally, West was set to show his stuff in various theaters around the world (huh?), but this makes a bit more sense.

Snapchat — love it or hate it, chances are you’re using it to playfully stay in touch with your friends and family via real-time photo updates of your best duck face selfies.

One of the ubiquitous app’s features is that your images disappear within a set amount of time, letting you be creative, silly or racy as you see fit without worry about those images sticking around or getting posted to the ‘net.

Savvy users, however, know that they can take a screenshot of any Snapchat and save it to their Camera Roll. Snapchat countered by letting the person you’re connected with know when you try to sneak a screenshot of their photo.

If, however, you’re looking to work around this new “feature,” there’s a simple trick that lets you save Snapchats without your friends knowing.

YouTube takes on the original content business with four new original series and movies from popular creators, including PewDiePie, Lily Singh (IISuperwomanII), Rooster Teeth and AwesomenessTV.

Called YouTube Red Originals, the new content is only available to subscribers. You can sign up for a free 30-day trial, though, or settle for short previews, if you’re not ready to take the plunge.

The iPad Pro and Apple Pencil are making paper and pencil design workflow a thing of the past.

Amanda Somers, a user experience (UX) designer for mobile app developer Mindsea Development, writes on Medium about her newfound respect for the Apple Pencil and iPad Pro combination.

“We are confident in saying we are able to sit down with iPad Pro and Apple Pencil and create something just as good, if not better, than sketching traditionally using pencil and paper,” she writes.

Use the power of your voice to watch TV. That’s not something out of Star Trek, but the promise of Siri on the fourth-generation Apple TV.

Beyond basic commands to find your favorite TV shows and movies, you might not know how much Siri can actually do for you. But using Siri Apple TV voice commands will unlock loads of helpful features, including reading onscreen labels, getting more in-depth info about whatever you’re watching, navigating various screens, and even playing music on demand.

And it’s bound to get better yet, as the new tvOS beta is bringing Siri dictation to search fields and the App Store.

Here’s how to get the most out of Siri on your Apple TV.

Apple was nominated for three “Crunchies,” TechCrunch’s annual award event for the best in technology. The technology giant lost all three.

Apple’s 3D Touch, the Apple Pencil, and CEO Tim Cook were all put forth as the Best Technology Achievement, Best Hardware, and CEO of the Year, respectively.

None of them won a Crunchie, losing out to SpaceX Falcon 9, Samsung Gear VR, and Mark Zuckerberg.

Of course, having 3D Touch in the same category as a spaceship really shows what an uneven, weird thing the Crunchies are.

If you want to clean up your contacts list so you can better utilize the power of keeping track of people’s contact info on your iPhone, you’ll need to clean it up.

My contacts list has always been a mess. I’ve kept a running list, saved to various services and such, since my first iPhone in 2007.

It’s annoying enough that I went looking for an app that will destroy all the crazy duplicates I have on my iPhone. When I found an app called Cleanup Duplicate Contacts, I took it for a spin and found out how easy it really is.

Here’s how it works.

Looking for a way to express your love for both the greatest sci-fi movies of all time as well as your penchant for electronic dance music (EDM)?

Hollywood Records, American Recordings, and legendary producer Rick Rubin have got you covered with a new official album, Star Wars Headspace, a compilation of original EDM tracks that have various Star Wars sounds and effects within them.

Sounds hot, right? You can preview three of the tracks thanks to Beats 1’s Zane Low, below.

Just a few months after release, the Apple TV has just about 3,600 apps in its App store. That’s a ton of entertainment, games, and media apps waiting to be discovered on the big screen.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a single killer app among them.

AppLovin, a mobile adverting and analysis firm, is hoping to change all that with the first ever Apple TV contest and hackathon, to be held in San Francisco this coming April.

If you take the time to properly set up your iPhone’s Health app, you can turn it into a powerful dashboard for keeping track of all the metrics that matter most to you.

Find out how to turn the unloved iOS app into an essential fitness dashboard in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine. We’re also spilling the beans on Apple’s March event, rating the best email apps, exposing the latest iPhone 7 camera rumors, and rolling up a bunch of must-have Apple travel accessories.

Here are the top stories this week.

A Monument Valley fan has taken to the Lego Ideas website with plans to create real-life Lego models out of the award winning iOS game.

Lego Ideas user Isometry has created a page that you can log in and vote for if you want to support the project; it costs nothing but your time to do so.

And why wouldn’t you? This is a fantastic way to bring one of the best iOS games into the real world.

Best List: CoverBuddy iPad Pro case by SwitchEasy

Keeping track of my Apple Pencil is a royal pain. Either I’ve got to slip it into a bag like an actual writing implement, carry it around in my pocket, or get one of those cases for my iPad Pro that adds a ton of bulk just to include a fabric loop to strap the Pencil in.

Not so the CoverBuddy case, an ultra-thin plastic sheath for the rear of the iPad Pro that includes something I wouldn’t expect from such a thin, light case: a secure spot for the Apple Pencil.

It’s simply the best minimalist pencil-holding cover I’ve seen yet.

If you use Google’s Chrome web browser, you’re now even safer from sneaky advertisers that try to get you to download their crummy software with fake download buttons.

Chances are you’ve seen these around, even on some large sites like Sourceforge and CNET, and might have clicked on one or two by accident, as intended.

Google’s new addition to its Safe Browsing initiative will block sites that have these deceptive download buttons on them.

Thursday Night Football just got more competitive as Apple, Google, Amazon and Verizon are going head to head to take on the NFL’s highly lucrative sports franchise.

The U.S. football association announced that it was in “active discussions with prospective digital partners” for streaming rights to the same games, according to industry sources.

Ringtones are passé; why not wake up to the sound of a music video in the morning?

You’ll be the envy of everyone who hears your alarm go off with this neat iOS 9 feature. Here’s how to enable it.

If you’re a cord cutter like a lot of us, you might be wondering how to get Super Bowl 50 up on your big screen at home without a cable subscription.

Luckily, if you live in the U.S., you’ve got it pretty easy. Even U.K. folks can stream it live (as long as they have a BBC account) on their iPads. If you live outside these two areas, though, you might need a little help.

Here’s how to get Super Bowl 50 on your Apple TV no matter where you live.

Best List: CFH-V15 Video Monitor by Kodak

This new 350-degree pan and tilt home security camera from Kodak is the most amazing video monitor I’ve used, ever.

I’ve helped friends set up a few security cameras over the years, usually to keep an eye on their kids or pets, and the CFH-V15 blows all of them away with its ease of use, simple setup, and high-end video quality.

I sure wish I had one of these when my kids were young.

It used to be that if you wanted to zoom any window on your Mac to see as much of the content inside it as possible, you’d hit OS X’s green button in the upper left of the window.

As of OS X Yosemite, the green button turned into a “full screen” trigger, zooming any window out to completely fill your Mac’s monitor.

If you hate that behavior, here’s an easy way to get the original zoom feature without the full screen.

I’m not a fan of abstract puzzle games, which makes it quite a surprise how much I’m enjoying twofold inc., a fairly abstract puzzle game that challenges you to match colors with a bit of math.

Did I mention I don’t like math games, either? What gives?

Apple’s plans for a new €850 million data center in Ireland have been put on hold after nearby residents appealed the recent decision to grant Apple rights to build there.

The complaint cites increased traffic and noise due to construction, but also claims that nearby bats and badgers, protected species that live in the nearby forest, will be significantly impacted.

The planning appeals board hopes to have a decision on the objections and make a final call sometime this month.

Makers of wearable electronics need to thank the Apple Watch for the rapidly growing wearable market, itself poised to see even more stunning gains in the coming year.

“From 2015 through 2017, smartwatch adoption will have 48 percent growth largely due to Apple popularizing wearables as a lifestyle trend,” said Angela McIntyre, director at research firm, Gartner.

Need to add that special musical magic to your short film or home video, but know next to nothing about film scoring or playing an instrument?

Filmstro’s got your back with a super easy-to-use Mac app that will let you create powerful, custom soundtracks simply and easily without needing to know how to compose or write music.

As a longtime iPhotos user, I’ve taken my sweet time getting to know the new Photos app in OS X. But I can tell you this much: It brings a few differences in the way it does stuff.

One of the new subtleties of the Mac’s Photos app is how it treats exporting your pictures. There are two ways to get your images out of the Photos app. One will give you a smaller file; the other will preserve the higher resolution of the original photo.

Here’s how to make sure you’re exporting your photos at the quality you want.