Car makers next year will begin selling vehicles that support Apple’s new system for connecting iPhones to the in-car entertainment systems built into the dash.
Nice, but it doesn’t go far enough. Here’s why Apple should start building the in-car entertainment systems themselves.
Finally, a Bluetooth® speaker made for on-the-go lifestyles. With an integrated omnidirectional microphone, The PULSE combines music-playing and conference-calling capabilities in a palm-sized package.
Weighing in at only 2.3 ounces, it attaches almost anywhere with the included clip – backpacks, seatbelts, pockets – so it’s always available, but never in the way. And for a limited time you can get it for just $79.99 – a savings of 19% – courtesy of Cult of Mac Deals!
The iPhone 5s introduced us to Touch ID. Photo: Apple
Apple seeded the second beta of iOS 7.1 to developers nearly a month after 7.1 beta 1 was released. Once again, Apple’s beta doesn’t contain any major new features but there are a couple useful tweaks that you’ll enjoy hidden among all the bug fixes, performance improvements and speedier animations.
Here are the five biggest changes Apple made to iOS 7.1 today:
Looking to capitalize on the surge of Bitcoin’s popularity, some mischievous pranksters from 4chan’s random image board are trying to convince Mac users to trash their computers.
The hoax claims that Apple has included Bitcoin mining software on all Macs since 2009, but you just need to enter a simple terminal command to unlock it. Of course, there is no secret Bitcoin mining app hidden in OS X, so what does the terminal command sudo rm -rf/* in the picture actually do? Oh, it just basically reformats your hard drive.
This is one of the best resource deals we offer all year, and at a 90% discount this bundle is at a price you can’t say no to.
The Annual Adobe Holiday Season Bundle offers 147 lectures and over 6 hours of valuable content, you’ll earn a Certificate of Completion at the end of the course. We’re throwing in some holiday-specific walk-throughs so you can get those newsletters and holiday cards done. And you’ll get all of this for only $49.
Here’s a funny idea with a high potential to go wrong: bake a batch of cookies in the shape of iPhones, drive around pretending to talk on them, and then when you inevitably get pulled over, take a bite, look the law enforcement official straight in the eye, and say, “Are cookies against the law, officer?”
This bold (although possibly ill-advised) plan was the recent brainchild of Los Angeles comedian Randy Liedtke. Thanks to Twitter, followers were able to see how the dicey scenario played out in more-or-less real time. Here’s what happened:
Everything Thing Is A Remix Filmmaker Kirby Ferguson just released a new case study for his popular series that tackles whether the iPhone is a truly original idea, or just a hodgepodge of copying and improvements like pretty much everything else. The case study starts by contesting Steve Jobs’ claim that Apple invented Multi-Touch – when really the technology was being developed for years by many companies – before strolling through some of Apple’s other inspirations.
The video does give Apple credit for creating a device that the entire mobile industry copied, while also providing a great survey of the real world objects Apple used as inspiration in Apple’s UI designs that helped make the iPhone and iOS so revolutionary. Ultimately the film turns to iOS 7 and the ideas Apple borrowedcopied remixed from Windows Phone and Android.
Watch the video below and tell us in the comments whether you think the iPhone got a fair treatment:
There are tons of solutions to get iOS photos from your device to some sort of backup system, from Dropbox to iPhoto. Backing up your photos is imperative, especially on iOS, as the iCloud backup system doesn’t back up photos, and PhotoStream only keeps the last 1,000 photos on your phone synced to all your enabled devices.
Backing up to cloud services is extremely convenient, but what happens when you no longer want to pay for the storage, or would rather hang on to your digital memories on your own computer? Sure, you can connect to your Mac with a cable, but then you’ve got to do the hard work of figuring out which photos you’ve already backed up.
Sync Photos To Storage, a new app from developer Simplex Solutions, aims to make this process much, much easier.
There’s nothing better than capturing moments as they happen during the holidays season. While your phone’s camera will do a pretty good job of that, wouldn’t it be better if you had a choice of lenses to add some depth and variety to your photos? This Cult of Mac Deals offer bundles three lenses into one package so you cant broaden your artistic range.
In the words of Family Guy, are iPhone-controlled model planes “a thing” now?
It was only September when we reported on the PowerUp 3.0 iPhone-Controlled Paper Airplane — speculating that it may well be “the coolest toy ever“.
Well, what a difference a few months make, since our wannabe-pilot hearts have now gone out to another: in this case to the SmartPlane, a Bluetooth-controlled miniature plane which promises to stand out from the growing pack of iPhone-oriented RC copters and the like.
Ever feel like the fact that using a tablet during takeoff and landing was banned for passengers — while allowable to pilots — was a bit of a safety double-standard?
Ages ago, my Cult of Mac brother in arms John Brownlee argued as much — and now it seems that European safety watchdogs are on his side, too.
Nothing makes a better gift than an iPhone, but if money’s an issue this Christmas, consider going to T-Mobile. Just in time for the holidays, T-Mobile is dropping the upfront price of an iPhone 5s or iPhone 5c to just $0. You can afford that, right?
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has awarded Apple a patent, describing a means of manufacturing curved touchscreens.
The patent, which was filed back in November 2010, may lend credibility to the rumors that Apple is working on an iWatch with curved glass display to fit users’ wrists, as reported earlier this year.
During the Apple vs. Samsung patent trial, Apple industrial designers revealed that the company had a “strong interest” in featuring a curved glass display for its iPhone as far back as the first generation model — although it abandoned the idea at the time for reasons of cost.
Here’s something you don’t see often: It’s an Android phone sporting a 30-pin connector. Blasphemy! Heretical! Nonsense. PhotoFast’s i-FlashDrive, which allows fast transfer of files between Android and iOS, is here to promote peace and understanding between all — even the heathenish Windows.
Pinning, posting or tweeting one’s way through a wilderness adventure always seemed a little antithetical to me; isn’t one of the reasons for going out into nature to get away from all this artificial electronic junk anyway? Yes, of course, I too am guilty of the odd flirt with Facebook from the bush — but I always feel so dirty afterward.
Yonder, a free app that creates a social circle for outdoor enthusiasts, won’t change how I feel about Tweeting from the trail — but at least it might push me closer to an equilibrium by turning the tables by inspiring me to get out there (boy, are those pictures gorgeous), and putting the outdoors in my social media instead of the other way around.
Automatic Link by Automatic Category: Auto Accessories Works With: iPhone & Android Price: $99.99
I’m a horrible driver. Each time a passenger gets behind the wheel with me they’re assaulted by a swirling barrage of sudden lane changes, quick breaking, faster acceleration and more near misses than I care to admit.
I’ve been driving since I was 13 which means I’ve probably picked up a slew of bad driving habits, but a new iPhone accessory, the Automatic Link, promises to help drivers make small changes to their driving habits by providing real-time feedback that can help you increase your fuel efficiency and make you a better driver. Bad habits die hard, so I put the Automatic Link to the test for 3-months to see if it would help improve my driving skills, here’s what I found:
Michael Pallad, Apple’s new iTunes Radio AdmanApple is looking to beef up its ads on iTunes Radio and has poached a top radio ad exec in the process as it prepares to open its service to a wider array of advertisers in 2014.
Michael Pallad, former VP of sales at Cumulus Media, has left the radio giant to oversee Apple’s ad sales for iTunes Radio internationally according to a report from AdAge.
Pallad joined Apple on December 2nd and has spent the last week getting oriented at the Cupertino Headquarters, but he’ll be pressed to get up to speed ASAP as Apple’s initial iTunes Radio ad deals are set to expire at the end of the year.
Be honest…the first time you saw a cassette or Nintendo-style retro case, you wanted it. But quality-wise, these style of cases just hasn’t been up to snuff. Until now. Rocketcases did the right thing, and made the cases we all wanted the way they should have been made the first time.
Now you can choose two cases from a variety of options. Whether you pick the classic black or white GameBoy, multi-colored cassette tapes, or the black or grey “Ghetto Blaster” boombox, you’ll get them for an incredible deal – just $25 – during this limited time Cult of Mac Deals offer.
As Black Friday approaches, Cult of Mac Deals continues to deliver the goods at a fraction of the regular price. This offer is, once again, no excpetion.
This hand-picked Mac bundle includes 8 top apps valued at $401 – and for a very limited time, you can get all of them for only $39!
The latest game in the Adventure Time series of mobile games will go live on Google Play, the Amazon App Store, and in Apple’s own iTunes App Store this Thursday, according to Cartoon Network.
You’ll get to play as main characters Finn and Jake, along with several other supporting cast members, evading the crazy Ice King while skiing down an epic mountain. Mathematical!
Of course, you won’t use skis, but rather slide down the slope on your butt, true to the wacky television show on which the game is based.
Hoping to recreate the success Instagram has had doing a similar thing to still images, new app Spotliter Video allows users to add a range of effects to videos shot using iOS devices.
If you think back to the iPhone launch in 2007, one of the things Steve Jobs was most proud of was the fact that the phone didn’t feature any kind of fixed, built-in keyboard in the manner of the BlackBerry or the Palm Treo.
Well, leap forward six years and the Typo Keyboard (largely bankrolled by American Idol host Ryan Seacrest) has either set things back or forwards by introducing a BlackBerry-inspired physical iPhone 5 keyboard, designed for those who spend large amounts of time typing messages and emails on the device.
As the week ends for many of us (and starts for others), Cult of Mac Deals has a couple of offers that look appealing in more ways than one.
First up is KICK: the Game-Changing Portable Lighting Studio. KICK provides smartphone-controlled studio quality lighting and effects that you can add to all your images and videos – and it fits in your pocket! The other offer is The Icojam Raster Icons Bundle, which features over 4,200 high quality icons for your design arsenal. KICK is going to cost you only $149 and the Icojam Raster Icons Bundle will run you just $35 – but both are available for only a limited time.
Apple flipped a switch this week and enabled customers at 254 U.S. Apple Stores to get spammed with micro-location based promotional nagging.
The new system, called iBeacon, is a low cost, low-energy way to achieve actionable “indoor GPS” in which “beacons” use Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signals to figure out exactly where you are and send messages relevant to that specific location.
But Apple Stores are probably the least-compelling iBeacon scenario I can think of.
Your typical Apple store is a glass box, a single room with a door in the front, a Genius Bar in the back and tables and shelves in the middle. It’s impossible to get lost in a regular Apple Store and trivially easy for customers to find any of the tiny number of products for sale. Also: Apple doesn’t do in-store promotional discounts except for one day a year (Black Friday).
Right now, you participate in the Apple Store iBeacon system by launching the Apple Store app (which I imagine most iPhone owners don’t know exists) and changing your iPhone’s settings to use iBeacon (which most iPhone owners don’t know how to do) and granting permission to get in-store promotions (which most iPhone owners probably have no interest in).
Once all that happens, iBeacon interrupts you to nag you about trading in your old iPhone, and offers help like Microsoft’s Clippy when you’re looking at a specific section of the store: “I see you are looking at iPads? Would you like to know more about the iPad?” (I made up the wording, but the intent of some iBeacon messages is identical to that.)
As a result, iBeacon in Apple Stores mostly annoys. I can think of a hundred scenarios where iBeacon could be incredibly great. But the greatest of these: My house.