At just $40, I can’t help but think that the water resistant Jive is anything more than adequate when it comes to sound, especially as it packs Bluetooth 4, AVRCP (for remote control from your iPhone) and a 500mAh battery (good for four hours). But given its likely use case, this doesn’t really matter. Because the Jive is the modern-day shower radio.
Apple likes to keep its secrets close to the chest, but Cult of Mac has grabbed an exclusive look at some behind the scenes video of Apple iPhone 5s repair processes. A tipster behind the Genius Bar has shown us portions of Apple’s official iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c repair videos that showcase the emphasis Jony Ive and the design team placed on repairability when creating the latest iPhones, as well as the crazy little repair tools Apple uses to ensure quality repairs.
Despite launching to record breaking sales numbers in September, Apple’s iPhone lineup has come under fire again and again for its apparent lack of repairability. Catherine Rampell at the the New York Times went on a bullshit parade two weeks ago claiming Apple tries to make your iPhone break so you have to buy a new one. Even Apple fans like our pal Kyle Weins, at iFixit, bemoaned Apple for not making the iPhone 5s more repairable for users.
To consumers, the locked enclosures of the iPhone 5s may seem like a guarded unfixable fortress, but the truth is that the iPhone 5s is one of Apple’s most repairable devices ever, you just have to be a Genius to get the right tools for the operation.
The segments of the 12 training videos we saw provided detailed animations of the iPhone 5s and 5c internal components, as well as guides on how to access and swap six components on the device – speaker, receiver, vibration motor, iSight camera module, battery, and sim ejector tool.
Here’s a picture from Apple’s training guide of the five specialized tools required to swap out iPhone 5c components:
Do you have a brand new iPhone 5S? Want to protect that beautiful piece of hardware but still want to show off its shiny gold or silver backing? This Cult of Mac Deals offer gets you not one, but two protective, minimalist cases that won’t hide your phone’s backside.
The iPhone 5/5S Accessory Bundle includies the Ice and Dry Ice iPhone 5/5S cases and the new Spark In-Ear Headphones – and all for just $57.99 during this limited time offer.
It’s a fact that we use more and more data these days, what with our iPads and iPhones having the ever-present connection to the cellular and Wi-Fi networks all around us.
Unfortunately, less of us have unlimited cell data plans these days, so it’s paramount that we keep track of which apps are sucking up the cell bandwidth, so to speak.
Luckily, iOS 7 lets you control which apps will use cellular, and which apps will only connect to and use the network juice via a stable Wi-Fi connection.
Want to know where you frequent the most? Your iPhone is set up in iOS 7 to track your location, and it also aggregates this information deep in the Settings app.
To find out where you are most often–or at least where your iPhone has been most frequently–you only need to look at the Frequent Locations tab.
I haven’t spent time on a construction site for some time, so I don’t know if it’s still true that every builder has a transistor radio. I do know that we had our kitchen remodeled a few months back and the guy our landlord sent to do it had the same kind of plaster and dirt-caked mains-powered radio you have been able to see for decades the world over.
He also seemed to spend a lot of time texting instead of working, so maybe he could have done with one of these iPhone chargers that uses a DeWalt battery pack for power.
Before I got lazy and did everything in Snapseed and Instagram, Filterstorm was one of my favorite iOS apps, and now it’s back, bigger, faster and, uh, neuer than before. Developer Tai Shimizu started over and came up with a whole new take on his powerful photo-editing app, which is appropriately called Filterstorm Neue.
If you’ve been hunting for a flawless solution to mirror your gameplay, videos, photos, presentations, and so much more right to your Mac then the application Cult of Mac Deals is currently offering will bring value to your life.
With X-Mirage you can wirelessly mirror your iOS device’s display to your Mac to take advantage of the big screen, and record everything onscreen with one click. This is a simple solution for showing off your iOS devices on a bigger screen. And the price is one that simply can’t beat – just $8.99 for a limited time.
In the past three years, Apple has dared to be dull.
During Apple’s best years, between 2007 and 2010, Apple introduced the first iPhone and the first iPad, two world-changing products that now define the company (and bring in most of its revenue). These products, along with their touch interfaces and apps stores, were a shock to the industry.
That’s great, Apple. But what have you done for me lately?
Here’s one theory about how Apple works: The company finds a horrible content consumption experience. They figure out how the experience can be made wonderful. They work on the products until they’re ready, both from product quality and price perspectives. Then they ship it and spend the next few years refining and perfecting the original vision.
If that oversimplification about how Apple works is accurate, then Apple isn’t really in full control of when its groundbreaking new products ship. They have to wait for technology, such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), or for various industries to come around to making a critical mass of content deals.
In the past three years, every Apple announcement has been preceded by speculation and rumor that Apple would at long last announce an iWatch, an iTV set and other products that would signal a radical new product category for Apple. And every announcement ended in disappointment. Every announcement was about refinement of old products, rather than bold launches of new products.
Will Apple ever enter new markets again, including the ones perennially rumored?
I say they will. The fact that they haven’t shipped the long-rumored iWatch or iTV, for example, makes perfect sense from a readiness perspective.
In fact, I think the next three years will be twice as awesome as the iPhone-iPad years, in the sense that Apple will break into four new businesses. Why? Because the technology and content deals will fall into place during this time.
Here’s what I think is going to happen.
Nothing gets us through a day at the office quite like some brand-spankin’ new music. And Grooveshark is one of the best places to discover what’s on the cutting edge.
Cult of Mac Deals has teamed up with Grooveshark to bring you a premium one-year subscription to Grooveshark Anywhere. This gives you unlimited commercial-free streaming of their on-demand music service on your desktop, tablet, and smartphone browsers. Enjoy over 15 million tunes, easy music curation, and online radio from the largest community of music lovers on the web. And do so for 50% off the regular price – just $49.
If you’re worried about your iPhone getting damaged the next time you’re involved in a heavy turf war, then check out Proporta’s new case for iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s. It looks like a standard leather folio case from the outside, but it’s lined with carbon fiber that’s so strong, it will comfortably withstand a shotgun blast from 20 yards.
When Apple launched the iPhone 5 last year, it was the most aggressive launch Apple had ever attempted, requiring entire armies of workers to aggressively line-manufacture their most advanced, difficult-to-make iPhone yet. But what was it like to be one of those workers? Businessweek has published a fantastic, haunting investigative report on one Nepalese worker, who almost starved to death after his stint as an iPhone tester.
I don’t know what it is with wireless chargers and the letters Q and I, but what I do know is that the iQi is the first one I have actually considered using. You see, instead of a fat case to hold the induction circuits, or the flux capacitor, or whatever it is that makes wireless charging possible, the iQi is a tiny slim sheet that slips inside your existing case.
I’m still a little woozy from the 14-hour plane ride from San Francisco, but at first glance this humming tech hub seems like Samsung territory.
For every 10 Galaxy Notes that metro riders are stumbling down the endless escalators watching TV shows or reading comics on, I’ve probably spotted one iPhone.
If there’s anything today’s Bluetooth speakers desperately need – it’s more bass. Too many of them sound too trebly, which often translates to too tinny. That’s not cool. Thankfully, the guys at Soundfreaq have brought back the beat with Sound Stack – a true audiophile’s dream.
With enhanced Bluetooth, docking for 30-pin connected iDevices and innovative audio enhancements, the Sound Stack speaker is a powerhouse. Fill any room with full, accurate sound thanks to Soundfreaq’s proprietary DubSub™ system, a unique 2.2 speaker configuration that pairs two Kevlar-reinforced drivers and two active subwoofers. Combine that with a tuned, triple-ported housing and their UQ3™ spatial sound enhancement technology and you’ve got an acoustic force to be reckoned with.
And Cult of Mac Deals has the Sound Stack for just XXX during this limited time offer — including free shipping!
RunKeeper, one of the most popular fitness trackers for iPhone, now boasts a number of cool new features that take advantage of the M7 motion coprocessor built into the iPhone 5s — thanks to a new update that hit the App Store today. The app also supports AirDrop, allowing you to share your workouts with nearby friends.
Apple has topped the list of world’s most valuable brands for the third straight year in a row, and is now worth almost twice as much as any other brand on the planet, Forbes reports. The Cupertino company is now valued at $104.3 billion, up 20 percent over last year, which puts it way out in front of Microsoft, Samsung, and even Google.
The question of whether there exists such a thing as an objectively perfect work of art remains the stuff of artistic scholarship and debates, but one particular artist feels they’ve cracked the question of how to improve a time-honored masterpiece — by adding in a number of Apple products.
If you’re a programmer who needs to learn iOS, a student, someone with a great app idea, or a computer science teacher who wants to add iOS to their skill set then the latest Cult of Mac Deals offering is going to be right up your alley.
With over four hours of video instruction, numerous lab exercises and dozens of code examples, The iPhone and iPad App Development Course gets you ready to create your own iOS Apps for the iPhone, iPad or both. And it’s available for 50% off for a limited time – just $49 – thanks to Cult of Mac Deals.
Getting kids to read 19th century literature is virtually impossible unless you attach a grade to it these days. While I was content with thick tomes of Brönte(s) and Austen in high school, my classmates were quick to avoid most books not written by popular authors within the last 20 years. If only someone made an infinite runner with book passages as the levels so children would have to look at words when playing games!
Stride & Prejudice by No Crusts Interactive is a surprisingly simple yet elegant way to read Pride & Prejudice without abandoning your love of repeatedly tapping your phone. You control the novel’s heroine Elizabeth (Lizzy) Bennet as she leaps daringly from sentence to sentence. Depending on which gameplay mode selected, you can actually read all of Pride & Prejudice at a leisurely pace.
Apple pushed out a nice new update to its Apple Store app for iPhone on Tuesday, which brings Apple Store gift cards to Passbook in the United Kingdom and other countries. The feature made its initial debut just over a year ago, but until now, it was only available to users in the United States.
Typing in your password every time you want to unlock your Mac sucks. Apple still hasn’t added facial ID recognition to OS X, nor have we heard nary a mention of Touch ID coming to MacBooks, but if you’re looking for a neat way to quickly unlock your Mac, a new app called Knock allows you do it with two quick taps on your iPhone screen.
The free Mac app works in tandem with an iPhone app that turns your phone into an authentication device. Knock uses Bluetooth Low Energy to communicate from iPhone to Mac but you should be able to leave it on all day without draining battery.
Here’s a video of Knock in action:
We’re not sure why Google just doesn’t change the name of their Google Search app for iOS, as it does pretty much everything Google Now does on Android, but this new update is pretty fantastic, whatever you want to call it.
Google Search is “now” updated to version 3.1.0, with a whole new set of features, including Notifications, Reminders, new Cards, and a Siri-like Handsfree voice. This last bit lets you command your iPhone to do stuff with the phrase, “OK Google.”
How cool is that?
We’ve seen a few dongles that let you track your devices from your iPhone using Bluetooth, and we’ve seen some that let you fire your iPhone’s shutter the same way. But the Wise Button does both. I wouldn’t call it wise, but I would call it useful.
Leather gloves are useful for many things: driving, punching, jewel thieving, murdering and doing sex. But one thing they weren’t good at until now was iPhone-ing. Mujjo has totally fixed that.