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Why Apple’s iBeacon Is Under-Hyped

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ibeaconprivacy

Apple products are usually over-hyped. But there’s one that’s radically under-hyped: Apple’s iBeacon positioning system.

So I’m here to turn up the noise on this quiet revolution. You really need to know more about this, because it’s going to change everything.

Why Apple Hardware Is Redonkulously Over-Powered

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macpro

Apple is increasingly shipping hardware products with specific features that are crazy overkill — far more power than is necessary or even usable.

Here’s why I think that when it comes to some technology features, too much is just right.

Need More Screen Space? New Mac Pro Can Drive Six 27-Inch Displays

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OWC Mac Pro drives Six Displays
2013 Mac Pro Driving Six 27" Displays (photo: OWC)

As the new Mac Pro trickles out into people’s hands, lucky owners of the world’s most high tech trash can have started playing with the machine to see what it can do. Over at Other World Computing, they figured that since the 2013 Mac Pro can drive three 4k monitors, it should be able to drive six 27-inch displays at 2560 by 1440 pixels – right?

The verdict? Yes, it can. Shown here is the diminutive dark tower surrounded by six 27-inch displays, radiating and reflecting in all their glory. Pretty slick. Besides serving as the ultimate multi-tasking system, this capability can also help drive things like video walls in museums, sports arenas and other on-location installations. Just remember to leave room for the stack of external hard drives!

Update: I just did the math, and this is equivalent to twenty-one 11-inch MacBook Airs…

Source: Other World Computing

How Apple Might Become the Ultimate Phone Company

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Siri will take you one step closer to the world of The Jetsons.
Siri will take you one step closer to the world of The Jetsons.
Photo: Hanna-Barbera

Apple, Google and Microsoft all want to be your phone company. But with both competitors’ communication offerings in disarray, Apple has an opportunity to offer the best, most elegant and integrated communication platform.

All they have to do is keep moving in their current direction, make a couple of key rumors come true and keep Steve Jobs’ promise about FaceTime.

Tenorshare Video Converter: Convert, Edit And Enjoy Videos Anywhere [Deals]

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redesign_tenoshare_mainframe

If converting video files is for you, then this Cult of Mac Deals offer is for you…and all for the price of a movie ticket.

Tenorshare Video Converter for Mac is the all-in-one and fastest video converter software for Mac users. It supports more than 100 video and audio formats conversion, and the output video can be played on QuickTime Player, iMovie, iPhone, iPad, and many more platforms. And now you can get Tenorshare for just $9.99 – a savings of 83%!

New Walking Dead Game Looks F***ing Scary, Amazingly Emotional

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clementinephoto

The new Walking Dead: The Game Trailer looks creepy as hell.

It’s been a year since Telltale’s first Walking Dead game came out and scared the crap out of all of us. Now Telltale has just released the first episode of the second season, titled appropriately enough The Walking Dead: Season Two.

Check out the trailer (rated M) below.

The New Year’s Mac Bundle: 9 Powerful Apps That Will Boost Your Productivity [Deals]

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The end of the year is fast approaching, and that means it’s time to start thinking about levelling up for the year ahead. Their are several apps available for the Mac that can help you do that, and Cult of Mac Deals has put together a bundle that takes some of these apps and packages them together at a very attractive price.

With The New Year’s Mac Bundle, you’ll get 9 helpful apps for one incredibly low price of $14.99. That’s 90% off – which works out to just over a dollar per app!

Ending Soon: Get 11 Insanely Useful Mac Apps With The Black Friday Mac Bundle [Deals]

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BF_MacBundle

It’s that time of year again.

The time of year where we start looking for the best deals out there. The time of year where we want to get the most bang for our buck wherever we can. Well, Cult of Mac Deals has assembled quite the offer with The Black Friday Mac Bundle. You’ll get 11 killer Mac apps for the low price of $49.99 – a savings of 88%!

The Mac Productivity Bundle 6.0: Stacked With 10 Top Selling Mac Apps [Deals]

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redesign_mainframe_630x473-1

We eat, sleep, and dream Mac apps here and that’s why Cult of Mac Deals is stoked to bring you another amazing offer that’s full of useful tools that will help you on a daily basis.

With this exclusive promo – dubbed The Mac Productivity Bundle 6.0 – you’ll get 10 of the hottest apps on the market for only $39.99!

Did Apple Just Buy Eyes for Siri?

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Mobile-3D-sensing

 

Apple agreed this week to buy Israel-based PrimeSense for $350 million.

PrimeSense is best known for making the 3D motion-tracking technology inside Microsoft’s Kinect.

Does this mean Apple plans to make its own Kinect? Maybe. But I think Apple may be thinking about something far more interesting.

Keep Your Hard Drive In Top Shape With The Stellar Drive ToolBox for Mac #BlackFriday [Deals]

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redesign_stellar_mainframe_630x473

Never suffer from a system crash, failed hard drive, or dip in system performance again.
The Stellar Drive ToolBox for Mac is a comprehensive bundle of utilities to keep your system healthy and optimized.

All 14 utilities help optimize hard drive performance, protect your data and provide an easy way to repair your hard drive’s volumes – it’s all you need to optimize, repair, and maintain your Mac. And Cult of Mac Deals has it for just $49.99 – 49% off the regular price of $99!

Inside the Vintage Mac Museum

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The Vintage Mac Museum in Boston houses historically significant Apple products. Photo: Adam Rosen/The Vintage Mac Museum
The Vintage Mac Museum in Boston houses historically significant Apple products.
Photo: Adam Rosen/The Vintage Mac Museum

Think you got enough Apple stuff? Cult of Mac’s resident vintage expert Adam Rosen has collected so many Apple products over the last three decades, he converted part of his house into a museum to showcase them all.

Assembling your own collection of Mac gear isn’t easy, but the Vintage Mac Museum in the Boston area has managed to get its hands on some really neat — and odd — items, like a cutaway Mac Plus, a rare black Mac and more Apple memorabilia than any sane person should own.

Here’s a look at an incredible assortment of Apple products at the Vintage Mac Museum. Plus, find out what Adam thinks you should keep or toss.

The Second Life Of The World’s Oldest Working Macs

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Hello I'm a Twiggy Mac
Macintosh 128K prototype with Twiggy floppy disk drive (photo: Adam Goolevitch)

Old computers tend to lead sedentary lives. Parked in shelves and closets, maybe touched by the occasional dusting; the lucky ones still run old games from time to time. But sometimes one becomes a sensation.

The Twiggy Macintosh is a prototype Macintosh 128k that used a 5.25-inch disk drive. Long thought lost to history, two of these primordial Macinti were recently resurrected and returned to life in full working glory. Their rebirth brought about a rare reunion of the original Macintosh design team. And one of them recently repaid the effort by fetching about $40,000 at an auction.

They are — without a doubt — the oldest working Macs in the world.

Here is the story of their amazing journey.

Apple 1 Sold for $330k After Auction Close

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Apple 1 Sale
Working Apple 1 from the November 2013 Breker auction.

On Saturday Cult of Mac reported that a working Apple 1 failed to sell at auction in Germany, a notable result in the growing market for vintage Apple collectibles. It turns out that result was premature: the Apple 1 did sell for €246,000 ($330,000), after bidding on the item had closed.

Vintage Apple Auction News: Twiggy Mac Sells for 33K, No Sale For Apple 1 & Lisa 1

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Vintage Apple at Auction
Another Apple 1 and a Twiggy Macintosh were recently up for auction

UPDATE: Cult of Mac has learned that the Apple 1 did sell after the auction closed. Read more here.
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Markets rise and markets fall – that’s true for stocks, real estate, tulips, etc. That’s also true with vintage computers – though even in a down market there’s still some money to be made.

At an auction in Germany held on Saturday November 16, a working Apple 1 – from the first batch of 50 units made – did not receive any bids. Nor did a restored Lisa 1, with dual Twiggy floppy disk drives. But a prototype Twiggy Mac, one of only two known working units, sold for €25,000 ($33,725), quite possibly the highest price ever paid for a vintage Macintosh.

Get Unparalleled Data Recovery And Protection With Disk Drill Pro 2.0 For Mac [Deals]

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CoM - DD

No matter how computer-savvy you are, sometimes you just can’t avoid issues like a failing hard drive. For those emergency situations, Disk Drill Pro can be your savior. If you lose any data, you just have to click a button and it displays a list of files that can be potentially recovered. Save yourself a ton of time and heartache and get peace of mind with this app.

And right now you can save a ton of money as well by taking advantage of this limited time offer from Cult of Mac Deals. Pick up Disk Drill Pro 2.0 for only $29.99 – that’s 66% off the regular price!

Twiggy Mac Update: World’s Oldest Working Macintosh Goes to Auction

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Twiggy Mac
The Twiggy Macintosh running early MacPaint software (photo: Auction Team Breker)

Auctions for rare Apple equipment have attracted a lot of attention the past few years, with prices for the Apple 1 going as high as an astounding $671,000! Another Apple 1 is going up for auction in Germany next month on November 16, but in addition a very different rare Apple item will be on the same auction block. One of only two known working Twiggy Macs in the world is going up for sale.

Twiggy Macs were prototype versions of the original Macintosh and used a proprietary 5.25-inch floppy disk drive, instead of the 3.5-inch disk which ultimately shipped with the system in 1984. All Twiggy prototypes were ordered destroyed by Steve Jobs – and long thought lost – but the last couple of years have seen an eventful rediscovery of this piece of Macintosh history. Now one can be yours – if the price is right.

Pahelika Secret Legends Will Have You Feeling Smart Before Long [Review]

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phsl_mac_02

Hidden object games don’t usually catch my fancy, to be honest. I’ve never been a big fan of the mechanics, which typically require you to find objects to then reveal other objects, which can then be combined to become actual useful objects. I’ve also never been too taken by the typical romanticized story lines, either.

Pahelika: Secret Legends by Ironcode Gaming
Category: Mac Games
Works With: Mac OS X
Price: $4.99

Big Fish’s new game, developed by India-based IronCode Games, Pahelika Secret Legends has found a way to convince me otherwise,t hough, and I find myself being drawn back to playing it often. There’s a fairly interesting story, and the puzzles are tough enough to provide a challenge without busting a brain.

If you’re like me and have been ambivalent about trying a game like this out, perhaps this is the one to start with.

Telltale Says The Wolf Among Us Delayed For Mac On Steam

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Mac version available soon

Oh, woe are we!

Telltale’s follow up to hit adventure game The Walking Dead has been delayed for Mac, due to “an unforeseen issue with the Mac version of Episode 1,” whatever that means. The Wolf Among Us is an episode-based adaptation of Vetigo’s Fable, a graphic novel set in the real world with mythical fairy tale creatures like Snow White, Jack Frost, Pinocchio, and–of course–the Big Bad Wolf.

The game publisher updated its original blog post announcement of the October 11 release to say that it “is working on an update right now and expect to have the Mac build live on Steam and the Telltale website within the next few days.”

Evernote Now Offers Two-Step Verification To All Users

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two-step verification Evernote

Evernote announced Monday the availability of Two-Step Verification for all its users, increasing security for everyone, instead of just the premium members.

In a blog post, Evernote’s Andrew Sinkov said that the software company values its users’ data security. The feature was introduced with a few other security measures last month, including Access History and Authorized Applications, but was only available for Evernote Premium and Evernote Business users.

These extra security features are now available to all Evernote users.

Early Apple Employee Reunion Celebrates the Twiggy Mac Resurrection

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Veteran Apple Employees
Veteran Apple employees gather around a resurrected Twiggy Mac
(photo: Jonathan Zufi, Shrine of Apple)

It was an impromptu family reunion whose RSVP list grew rapidly. In celebration of the recent rebirth of two prototype Twiggy Macs, many legends of Cupertino relived memories and reconnected with old friends in a private party held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.

Attendees, many of whom held Apple badge numbers in the single or double digits, included (among others) Steve Wozniak, Andy Hertzfeld, Daniel Kottke, Chris Espinosa, Guy Kawasaki, Jerry Manock, Terry Oyama, Larry and Patti Kenyon, Rod Holt, Randy Wigginton and Wendell Sander. The soiree was arranged by longtime Apple employee Dan Kottke and Gabreal Franklin, former president of Encore systems and owner of one of the resurrected Twiggy Macs.

Apple’s venerable alumni laughed and reminisced with each other while playing with the rare prototype, commenting on early aspects of the design and who did what. “It’s got an hourglass cursor,” Andy Hertzfeld said. “I don’t remember that. Hey, I wrote that. It seems slow to me.”

Behold The World’s Smallest Working Macintosh!

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Mini Mac and Steve Jobs Doll
A Steve Jobs doll towers over this 1/3 scale mini Macintosh. (All photos: John Leake)

It stands shorter than a Steve Jobs doll. It can be held in the palm of your hand. It runs System 6, and elicits squeals of delight from vintage Mac fans.

It is the Smallest Mac in the World.

Hot on the heels of the news of the world’s oldest working Macintosh comes a breakthrough of much more modest proportions. John Leake, co-host of the RetroMacCast, has created what may be the world’s smallest working Macintosh using a Raspberry Pi computer, PVC, some off-the shelf parts and a Mac emulator running under Linux. He calls it “Mini Mac.”

Why? As Leake writes on his blog, “this is one those ‘because I can’ projects with no practical use – my favorite kind!”