Cult of Mac - page 4

We’ve had a great time this week seeing everyone be so enthusiastic about the Twitter Celebration Giveaway. Five excited winners took home some excellent printers and monitors from HP. We want to give a big thanks to all our readers who participated in the giveaway and who have supported us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, and even Pinterest. Also, a huge thank you to HP for being such a great company to team up with and providing all the prizes.

This Week’s Winners:

• Monday: Brian Cichon won a free HP ZR2740w 27-inch LED Monitors
• Tuesday: Carol Sosalla won a free HP ENVY¹¹⁰ e-All-in-One Printer
• Wednesday: Alan Mackulin won a free HP ZR2740w 27-inch LED Monitors
• Thursday: Keith Dean won a free HP ENVY¹¹⁰ e-All-in-One Printer
• Friday: Alice Walker won a free HP ZR2740w 27-inch LED Monitors

Thanks for playing this week everyone.

If you haven’t taken advantage of our latest Cult of Mac deal — The Mac Superbundle — you’d better hurry. You’ve only got a few hours left to pick up 10 great apps at a fraction of their regular price.

As you may have noticed, Cult of Mac brought in a new week with a brand spanking new redesign. Besides updating our old color scheme to be more subtly evocative of OS X Lion’s design instead of Snow Leopard’s, the guiding principle behind the new Cult of Mac design is to make it easier for our readers to know what’s new, what’s hot, what’s being talked about and what’s going on. Here’s everything you need to know about what’s new.

For longtime Apple fans and new Mac and iOS users alike, this is a fascinating time to be living and working. Apple is becoming a fixture in every kind of workplace. It seems like every week there are stories of businesses investing in iPads or MacBooks, including the recent Forrester report that one in five people now use an Apple device on the job and 50% of companies issued Macs to at least some staff members. Not to mention the Checkpoint study that showed corporations preferring iOS over both Android and BlackBerry.

In other words, Apple, the iPad and iPhone are revolutionizing business, and Cult of Mac is joining that revolution. That’s why I take great pleasure in introducing Ryan Faas, Cult of Mac’s new business reporter. Ryan will be writing for the site full-time, covering the incredible march of Apple technology into the workplace. Ryan is a veteran tech journalist who has written extensively about Apple, business and enterprise IT, and the mobile industry. He’s contributed to Computerworld, InformIT and Peachpit Press.

This week on our Instagram feed  we’ve created a new series called #ThisIsWhereiBlog to give readers a glimpse of what it’s like to write for Cult of Mac. As interesting as it is to see how Nicole Martinelli enjoys cozying up in an Eames Lounge Chair, and that John Brownlee blogs in the company of budgerigars, we’d love to see what life looks like from YOUR end.  This weekend we’ll be compiling a gallery of reader-submitted photos that reveal where they blog/surf the web. Do you blog in a secret cupboard under a staircase? On the beach? We wanna see it.

To get included the gallery, take a picture of where you blog  and post it on either Instagram or Twitter with the tag #ThisIsWhereiBlog. We’ll collect the best ones and display them on Cult of Mac this weekend.

Holy guacamole, we won! To be perfectly honest, I have no idea how this happened. Wired is bigger than Cult of Mac in almost every measurable aspect (except sex appeal, obviously), and their magazine is cool as hell. But somehow, we went off like Tom Brady and managed to melt their faces off with our awesomeness during our “Insta-gram Challenge.”

Even though we were slightly somewhat heavily inebriated at the Wired Party in Las Vegas when we challenged them, you guys managed to pull it off for us. First off we owe a big thank you to our readers for making this momentous feat possible. Secondly, Wired deserves some credit for playing along with us and being good sports even if they obviously aren’t the better Instagramers. Thirdly, I guess we’re obligated to thank ourselves in that prototypical KanYe West fashion. I heard whispering around the office today that CoM’s John Brownlee credits the “Kobe System” for helping him come up with hilarious tweets and pictures during CES.

What’s next? Don’t worry, our Instgram feed isn’t going dormant until the next CES. We’ll be pumping out more Cult of Mac pictures for your entertainment because we realize that taking down Wired is cool and all, but who we really want to beat is The Biebs. We’re coming after you’re next Justin!

We started an Instagram account a few days ago and have had a blast posting pics of what life at Cult of Mac looks like. Interacting with readers in this new way has been one of the funnest projects we’ve started. Wired.com had the same idea as us a few days ago but we’ve already amassed more followers than them. We threw down the gauntlet to them last night to see who can get to 3000 followers first and they’ve haughtily accepted. We need your help to kick their ass.

If you haven’t started following us on Instagram we’d love for you to open up your app right now, search for “cultofmac” and follow us.

What will you get from following us on Instagram? Here’s some samples of our awesome feed –

Still shopping around for last minute gifts for your friends or family? Consider these three books authored by Cult of Mac writers, which may be just what you’re looking for.

Earlier this week we reviewed the Fanny Wang On-Ear Headphones and concluded they’re a pretty great set of cans. One cool thing about the the Fanny Wang headphones we didn’t mention was that you can order a completely customized pair from the Fanny Wang website. Because we know you guys love a nice set of headphones, we’re giving away one free pair of Custom 2001 Fanny Wang On-Ear headphones to a lucky reader. You can customize them however you want and keep them for yourself, or give the coupon to a friend for the Holidays as a gift.

I’ve never been the best at math, but I’m pretty sure there are almost 1.5 million different color configurations possible, so to determine a winner for this giveaway we’re going to be taking submissions to see who can design the best pair of headphones.

Here’s how to enter:

Reading the news on the iPad is one of the absolute best experiences you can have on Apple’s magical tablet device. So when news hit yesterday that our two favorite iOS news reader apps came out with updates, we were pretty stoked. While you probably heard a great deal about the other reader app, we wanted to tell you about the awesome news reader you might be missing out on. It’s called Flud, and it was just completely redesigned yesterday.

Besides sporting a major facelift, what’s spectacular about Flud is its new ability to make reading the news a social experience. Rather than relying solely on an app to recommend websites and content to you, Flud users have the ability to see what their friends are reading in the app and share content back with them rather than spamming their Facebook or Twitter feed with the 15 news stories they’ve read throughout the day. Giving each user the ability to create a “news personality,” Flud aims to change the way we consume news much in the same way that Spotify and Rdio have changed the way we listen to music, by allowing users to inspire and be inspired by others based on what they consume.

Ever gone a trip overseas and felt silly trying to talk to locals who didn’t speak a lick of English? Yeah, me too. It’s actually become a bit of problem for me because I love traveling to different countries, but hate not being able to communicate with the locals. Today we’re offering a heat-seeking deal from Ultralingua. If learning a new language has ever crossed your mind, this buy one, get one free Cyber Monday special is a definite piece of gold!

Ultralingua dictionaries are available in dozens of language combinations, and they make a great gift for students, business professionals, teachers, and travelers. Use this deal for yourself or any of the language lovers on your gift list! Each language app includes a variety of reference and learning tools in a beautiful and simple interface.

For only $35, you’ll get two Mac App Dictionaries of your choice!

Your options include:

Earlier today Google announced the addition of Google+ Pages, which allows businesses to create pages and interact with fans, just like on those other social networks. We’re really excited about Google+ (Hangouts are pretty freaking awesome), so we’re not wasting time to get started. We created our shiny new Google+ Page for Cult of Mac that will be getting all latest Cult of Mac news and love. Now you can add us to your circle and enjoy Cult of Mac’s news in Google+.

You can get to our Google+ Page by clicking here. And if you haven’t added us yet to your Facebook and Twitter parties, we’d love to be your friend there, too.

Not all of us on the Cult of Mac staff walk around with an Apple logo shaved into the back of our head. Actually, none of us do because we value our furs too much. However, there are a few hardcore Apple fans out there that represent the cult with pride. Example #1: As pictured above, this fan had not one, but two iconic Apple images shaved into his hair to commemorate Steve – the famous portrait, as well as the silhouette of Steve’s face inside the Apple logo.

Think you have more old Macs lying around the house than you need? Well that’s probably true, but you likely can’t compete with this veritable fortress of old Macs in Quebec. Vintage Mac lover Cyber@ctif recently posted this picture of his “wall o’ beige” on the RetroMacCast website.

Another twenty or so Compact Macs should complete the outer wall fortification. I particularly like the lone Color Classic standing above the rest on a pillar of ImageWriters and StyleWriters. Must be the Commander.

Let’s be honest, typical email clients (like your old corporate buddy Mr. Outlook) are about as fun as a bag full of dead butterflies.  When was the last time you got excited to use Entourage or Lotus Notes? Probably never.

Luckily, Sparrow glided into the app-scene with a singular goal to make emailing fun. It’s lightweight so its zippy, yet packed with features no other email app has.  The love and energy the Sparrow team put into their app has changed emailing from a dreaded chore into something that is pleasurable and fun.

Yesterday, with great excitement, Cult of Mac launched a new software hub called deals.cultofmac.com. Teaming up with the guys at StackSocial, this new feature will bring Apple fans the best deals on cutting-edge Mac Apps at a price you won’t be able to find on the Mac App Store. We’re starting things off by offering Sparrow, the best mail-app for OS X, for only $6.

To celebrate the launch, we’re giving away 5 copies of Sparrow for free to our readers via a giveaway contest on Facebook. Entering the giveaway is simple, but you gotta play to win.

Here’s how to enter:

For those who love their iPads but miss the warm, muted sounds of a 78rpm phonograph, feast your eyes on the iVictrola iPad dock. A successor to the iVictrola iPhone dock a few years ago, this acoustic amplifier uses the speaker outputs of your iPad and an antique Magnavox phonograph radio horn to playback anything from Bix Beiderbecke to Lady Gaga – no electricity required.

For this week’s giveaway we’ve partnered up with the friendly folks at Appular to bring fans a great package of iOS gaming apps, for free. We’ve got codes for five of the hottest games in the iPhone App Store right now and we’re ready to dish em out to our awesome fans to liven up your iPhone gaming lives. Today’s package of apps includes Cars 2, Tiny Wings, Hanging With Friends, The Game of Life, and Sea Battles. If you want a chance to win all five games then hurry up and enter the contest.

If you didn’t win yesterday’s Twitter giveaway, have no fear. Truepower Inc decided they’d like to giveaway a few more ThinSkins to Cult of Mac’s amazing readers. Switching things up, we’ll be doing a Twitter Trivia Giveaway today and handing out 5 new ThinSkins to the winners. If you want to join our five winners from yesterday and win a free ThinSkin we’d be happy to have one sent to you as long as you play by the rules.

David Schwen’s motto is “make something cool every day”. In some cases what’s past is present, as shown in this clever series of composite photographs of the classic Macintosh generic file icon out on the town in a variety of locations. Seen here emulating a parking ticket (but without the bright orange paper).

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSJmTByABG0

Calendar apps are usually pretty boring. You log an appointment in it and then you never think about the app again. Fantastical is here to bring a little bit of flavor and awesomeness to your drab calendar app. Fantastical allows you to create events instantly via natural language input. One of the great things is that the app works perfectly with iCal, Entourage, and Outlook so you don’t have to change over to a new calendar system.

Lucky for you, the team behind Fantastical, Flexibits, wanted us to share the love with all our readers, so today we’re giving away 3 promo codes for this awesome new calendar app. Soon enough you’ll be using natural language to create events in no time. Of course you have to enter to win. Here’s how to enter today’s contest.

In the last few years a kind of cat and mouse game has evolved between Apple Legal and some of the more daring (and creative) members of the Cult of Apple: tempting fate by selling Steve Jobs collectibles, and risking the wrath of Apple. How long before your Cease & Desist letter arrives?

Here are some of the more popular items created in the past few years.

We met some amazingly fantastic people at our first-ever shindig (at San Francisco’s Il Pirata) and gave out a smorgasbord of smashing raffle prizes.

We’ve given away an iMainGo X everyday this week. Although we wish we could keep it up, today is the last day for our awesome Cult of Mac readers to win this prize. If you’ve entered the contest everyday this week and still come up empty handed, here is your last chance, so make it count. Because we’re filling generous, we’re going to give everyone the option to submit two entries into the contest. Here’s how to enter: