George Hotz is known to his legions of online fans as “geohot,” the infamous hacker who was the first to unlock the iPhone and crack the Sony PS3. Hotz has been flying under the radar lately, but he’s about to make his first foray into the App Store with a new iPhone app.
The app is called Reactions, and it’s currently being reviewed by Apple. The idea is relatively simple, and it has the potential to either be a massive flop or make it big. It’s photo sharing with a twist.
Twitter has released a new iPhone app in the App Store, and it’s called Vine. According to Twitter, “Vine is the best way to see and share life in motion. Create short, beautiful, looping videos in a simple and fun way for your friends and family to see.”
6-second clips can be uploaded to Twitter from the app, and you can play them back right in embedded tweets on the web and in Twitter’s official mobile apps.
At the end of last year the blogosphere got all excited about Mailbox, an upcoming iPhone app that promises to reinvent the way you do email. Developed by Orchestra, the app is finally coming in a few weeks, and it will be totally free. Demand has been so huge that everyone won’t be able to use Mailbox the day it launches in the App Store; you’ll need to activate it separately.
When you are finally able to download Mailbox in the App Store, a message will show you how many people are in front of you in line. A code will be texted to your iPhone’s phone number that gives you access to start using the app. It may seem unnecessary, but the folks at Orchestra are trying to guarantee that their servers stay up and running as more and more users jump on. Mailbox’s servers compress incoming emails so they arrive faster than normal on your iPhone.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – Once, a few years ago, I begged my dad to let me set him up with an email address. “Don’t do it now, I’m moving,” he said with a baffled look on his face. For my dad, whose familiarity with technology went little further than his solar-powered calculator, Flicpost would have been awesome.
Uber is a really great service, but the iPhone app has always sucked. It has been a real shame because Uber made me never want to take a taxi again. I’ve been wanting the app itself, which is arguably the crux of the whole experience, to be on par with the great driving experiences I’ve had in Uber cars.
Today Uber 2.0 went live in the App Store, and it just took everything to the next level. Not only does the app have a gorgeous new design, but you can finally get fare estimates before you book a ride. There’s also iPhone 5 support and plenty of other goodies.
We’re continually seeing examples of how the iPhone has exploded its horizons to become much, much more than just a phone. Case (ha) in point: Why shell out $300 for an action cam when you already own a video cam with stellar optics and image-stabilizing, a big, beautiful screen and the ability to upload your exploits whenever you damn well please? All you need to turn your iPhone from video cam to action cam is a rugged, weatherproof case with a wide-angle lens, and the ability to stick the whole thing onto a helmet or such. And that pretty much describes the $150 Mophie OutRide system.
The Larklife fitness gadget doesn’t just lifelessly track all the mundane details of your life, like calories burned, miles trudged and hours snoozed away. No, this little thing actually learns your habits and tells you, in realtime, exactly what you should do to make yourself healthier.
The jury’s still out on what effect the firing in August of some key players at Hipstamatic will have on the app itself — but the toy-camera simulator is still pumping out the FreePaks, those cute virtual lens-and-film pairings that often tie in with some pop-culture reference. This time it’s based off the star-stuffed Gangster Squad flick, set to be released early next year. Oh, and they’re giving away a Canon 5D Mk III in a contest, if you’re interested.
Travis Jensen is a self-taught photographer with a day job who has just published his fifth book of street snaps.
Shot with an iPhone 4 plus Hipstamatic’s John S. Lens and Blackeys Supergrain Film, “Wish You Were Here – San Francisco Street Snaps,” was published in collaboration with the Franklin Street Whole Foods store with proceeds to benefit Larkin Street Youth Services. (If you’re in San Francisco, you can meet Jensen and pick up a signed copy at the launch party at Hipstamatic headquarters on Thursday, November 29.)
Jensen offered Cult of Mac these tips on how he turned his weekend obsession of iPhone photo forays into supermarket checkout fare.
So, if you’re in the market for a silly, fun little app that will let you mix photos, videos and sound on your iPhone, Artsy Head may be the one to grab. It’s free for the rest of November to celebrate Cyber Monday week as well as the end of Movember. Apparently, one of the fun things folks do with Artsy Head is add mustaches to their photos and videos, making it thematically appropriate, don’t ya know.
C’mon, who among us hasn’t snapped a photo on Instagram and thought “wow, that’d look great on my wall” — I know I have. So Art.com came up with Photos to Art, a slick app that painlessly, almost magically transform your digital snapshot into a piece of art — all you need to provide is some money and a bit of imagination (and they’ll even help you with that last one).
Facebook just rolled out a big update to its iOS app in the App Store. Most notably, version 5.2 of Facebook’s app brings the long-awaited “Share” button.
Like Twitter’s ability to retweet, Facebook is now letting users quickly share links and posts on their timeline. You’ve been able to do this on the desktop and Facebook’s mobile website, but now the sharing functionality is integrated in the native Facebook iOS experience.
Today’s update brings a number of other additions, including emoticons in messages and the ability to tag your friends in status updates and comments.
Today a free version of popular photography iPhone app “Over” launched in the App Store called “Overgram.” With Overgram, it’s easy to add beautiful typography to pictures taken on your iPhone. As the name implies, you can easily share your creations on social networks like Instagram.
Check out Overgram, and if you like it, the full version of Over is on sale in the App Store for a limited time. Your Instagram feed will never be the same.
Popular microblogging service Tumblr just pushed out a huge update for its official iPhone app. Tumblr on the iPhone has always been a web-reliant experience, but today’s update introduces a new app that has been rewritten from the ground up to be completely native.
The Dashboard view is totally new and there’s a nifty Notifications panel with fluid animations and swiping gestures throughout the whole app.
Full list of changes:
Popular todo list app Clear has been updated on the iPhone with several new features and improvements. The folks at Realmac Software have added iCloud syncing for keeping tasks updated across devices—the feature will come in handy when the Mac version of Clear ships tonight. A new gesture for quickly accessing multiple lists has also been added. You can now quickly add text from your iOS clipboard to new tasks by shaking your device while Clear is open.
Full list of changes:
It’s all come down to this. Today is Election Day, and your vote is going to help determine the United States’s destiny over the next four years. This is one of the most important elections in years, and that means it’s more important than ever for you to stay organized with supporters around you and live on the cutting edge to keep up-to-date with all the latest Election News.
Get out the vote, Blue States (and Blue People) with these useful iOS apps for Democratic Party Supporters. If you’re looking for Cult of Mac’s Election Day App Guide for Republicans, click here.
It’s all come down to this. Today is Election Day, and your vote is going to help determine the United States’s destiny over the next four years. This is one of the most important elections in years, and that means it’s more important than ever for you to stay organized with supporters around you and live on the cutting edge to keep up-to-date with all the latest Election News.
Here are Cult of Mac’s top picks for conservative readers who want to follow the 2012 elections with their iPhones and iPads… and influence them too. If you’re looking for Cult of Mac’s Election Day App Guide for Democrats, click here.
Facebook has just pushed out a big update to its iOS app in the App Store. Version 5.1 brings a number of improvements, including a new interface for messaging friends, the ability to upload multiple photos at once, and Facebook Gifts.
Steve Jobs was a Buddhist, a religion founded on the concept of the impermanence of all things.
And everything is impermanent. Especially Apple products.
A lot of users complain about Apple’s everything-is-temporary philosophy. But I think Apple will increasingly embrace it — and even launch a social network whose main feature is the deletion of your posts.
With the holidays coming, maybe there’s no such thing as “too many photobook makers.” At least, that’s probably what Mixbook is banking on with their new Mosaic app, which lets you quickly create a hard-cover photobook for $20.
This one’s a little different though: Not only can you create and order your photobook with your iPhone, but the books are created with an unusual effect where photo thumbnails peek through windows in the book’s cover. Definitely attention-grabbing.
Beamr is one of those mouth-watering iPhone apps that wows not so much because of what it is, but because of what it could be.
The basic idea is very cool: Delve into your photo library, select a handful of photos and choose a cover shot. The app will then superimpose some text and graphics over the cover (you can change the cover text).
But the real magic happens when you share your little faux-magazine. Beamr uses “patent-pending JPEGmini optimization technology” to package and deliver the “magazine”; the result is very quick delivery, and the images can be saved by the recipient at full resolution (for example, 8MP if you shot the pictures with an iPhone 4S/5).
I yearn for more, though. The photos can’t be arranged in any way, and there’s only one style of cover. Also, the app is designed for the iPhone, not the iPad(s) on which it would really shine. Still, it’s a neat trick and worth checking out. And hopefully there’ll be updates that build it out in the near future.
The iPhone camera has sparked a revolution in self-portraits – both above and below the belt. One Apple fanatic in San Francisco has turned the habit of iPhone users to say cheese into inspiration for a new kind of portrait.
Igor Capibaribe takes the nude iPhone photos people send him and turns them into one-of-a-kind art works.
The final effect is so far away from DIY nudie shots that the photos here don’t really do them justice. If you’re in San Francisco, you can check them out on this weekend at his studio. (October 26th from 6-9 pm, October 27 and 28 from 11 am – 6pm, Studio 3A 2150 Folsom Street. You can also see more on his site.)
I have a problem keeping track of suggestions from friends and loved ones. Someone will recommend me an artist or TV show to check out, and I’ll forget to actually check it out shortly after. Apple’s wish list feature in iTunes is nice on the desktop, but you can’t manage or view it in iOS. I use an app called TodoMovies to track films I want to watch on the iPhone, but I’ve been longing for something more robust.
When I heard about Recall, I was intrigued. “Never forget a great recommendation again.” Ok. Sign me up. After giving it a test run, I was pleasantly surprised.
Just retooled for the iPhone 5, Vlock is a free app that displays a bold Android-ish clock, with date, on your iPhone. It’ll also let you play videos through the clock in a kind of video version of the iPad’s Picture Frame mode, complete with loop and transitions. Combine this with the app’s lockscreen feature, and you’ve got a faux animated Android-y lockscreen. All without a jailbreak.
I’ve been messing about with this new app, called Listen, on my iPhone 5 for a little while, after the developer hit me up on Twitter about it. Now, I’m not able to jump on on every app, Mac or iOS, that someone asks me to look at, but I gave this one a look-see. Turns out, it’s a pretty neat little app, which does exactly what its name says it does.