Riot Games, developer of insanely successful online battle arena game League of Legends, has created a new game as a love letter to its fans. Titled Blitzcrank’s Poro Roundup, the side-scrolling game is available for Android, iOS and as a web app.
How deep is your love for Apple? Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple fans have good reason to love the Cupertino company, which continues to revolutionize new product categories and deliver hugely successful products year after year. But how far should that love go?
Some might say there is a group of fans who are irrationally loyal to the Apple brand, devoted to buying its latest products just because they sport the Apple logo, and dismissing all competitors just because they don’t. But is there really a “Cult of Apple?”
Join us as we battle it out over that very question in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Androidand Cult of Mac.
Amazon became only the second company, behind Apple, to reach the $1 trillion market valuation. Photo: Roberto Baldwin/The Next Web
In the news business, a story that has legs stays in our heads, conversations and spins off follow-up headlines. Such was this week’s major newspaper expose describing Amazon as a hellish pressure cooker where employees cry at their desks.
Not everyone agreed with The New York Times piece that drew this conclusion after interviews with more than 100 current and former workers. Now even a Times editor is questioning whether the story was fair.
Dre's finally apologizing for his misogyny. Photo: Beats
Hip-hop producer and Apple employee Andre Young, aka Dr. Dre, has been all over the news the past week thanks to his hit new album Compton and the movie Straight Outta Compton, which chronicles his rap group NWA’s rise to fame in the late ’80s.
Not all the attention surrounding Dre has been positive though, as critics have lampooned the Dre-produced film for glossing over some of the less-savory bits of NWA’s history, like the time Dre beat up Dee Barnes and a few other women. In an effort to stem the backlash, the first billionaire in hip-hop released a statement this morning, apologizing to the women he’s hurt.
This hidden port may be the key to future Apple Watch accessories. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Apple is looking to bring even more fitness sensors to your wrist by creating special Apple Watch bands that will take advantage of the device’s hidden port, according to a new rumor.
Apple Car might be coming, but will it be special? Image: Aristomenis Tsirbas/Freelancer
Apple has been slowly poaching some of Daimler’s top talent for its own car project that is nearly ready for testing, but according to Daimler CEO, Dieter Zetsche, it wouldn’t be totally inconceivable for Apple and the Mercedes-maker to work together on a future automotive project.
Zetsche said that “different types” of cooperation with Apple and Google are possible in the future, as carmakers have realized they need software experts and telecoms to help create the next-generation of automobiles.
A comprehensive lesson bundle for game developers, covering the new features of iOS 9. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Another year, another massive operating system update to learn and master. If you design games for mobile, you’ll soon have to reckon with the sweeping changes in the upcoming iOS9 update. Here’s your chance to get ahead of the curve with a comprehensive bundle of 8 game-building lessons for just $49 at Cult of Mac Deals.
Try Samsung’s latest smartphones for free. Photo: Samsung
Got an iPhone and want to try out the competition?
For just $1, Samsung will let you test drive its brand new Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 edge+, or Galaxy S6 edge for 30 days — and provide you with free cellular service during the trial.
The iPhone 6c is getting some big upgrades compared to its predecessor. Photo: iPhonesoft
The rumored 4-inch iPhone 6c will boast an A8 processor, Touch ID and Apple Pay, according to a new report coming out of the Apple supply chain in China.
Sacré bleu! The iPhone 6s is coming! Photo: PhoneArena
There’s more evidence that preorders for the iPhone 6s will start on September 11, courtesy of a screenshot showing what appears to be information relating to a French mobile carrier.
Future criminal masterminds in the making? Photo: Fox6Now
A post containing selfies taken by a group of iPhone thieves has gone viral on Facebook, being shared more than 100,000 times since being posted by the handset’s rightful owner yesterday.
There's got to be more to life than this. Photo: Apple
Call me cynical, but when I saw the latest ad in the “If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone” series Thursday afternoon, I felt a little uneasy.
Sure, there’s over a million stores you can use Apple Pay in, but if this ad is to be believed, they’re all the same corporate-owned stores you’ll see in every mall across the US.
Meaning it's really expensive and does one thing really well. Photo: Montblanc
Apple’s Marc Newson is one of the best designers in the industry. His plane-inspired Lockheed Lounge chair was reflective, smooth and looked incredibly uncomfortable. And we’re still enjoying the look and feel of our Apple Watches, even if the other night a drunk girl at a bar made fun of me for wearing mine in public. And that was hurtful.
But Newson isn’t just about shiny devices and even shinier chairs. He’s recently teamed up with luxury accessory designer Montblanc to create the Montblanc M, a classic fountain pen that looks like it came from the future.
I don't know; did we really miss it? Photo: Beau Giles/Flickr. Licensed through CC BY-ND 2.0.
A 14-year-old modder has apparently managed to replace his Apple Watch’s bubbly default home screen with something a little boxier and more classic: iOS 4.2.1, which launched all the way back in 2010.
Billy Ellis, a self-described “iOS app and tweak developer,” posted a video of his project on YouTube. Check it out below:
There's a lot more where that came from, says the hacker. Photo: Hamza Sood
“I guess I’m known as that firmware-poking guy,” says Hamza Sood, the young hacker who most recently found a way to create and add custom watch faces to Apple Watch.
Cult of Mac chatted with the London-based 19-year-old via email to find out more about what makes him tick.
Apple tookover Selfridges' 24 displays. Photo: Wallpapers
In support of the Apple Watch’s increased availability in the U.K., Apple has taken over all 24 windows at the iconic Selfridges’ shopping center in London to promote the new timepiece.
Apple opened a store within a store concept a Selfridges’ earlier this year. The gigantic new displays mimics the Apple Watch’s floral clock faces, with some flowers reaching up to 1.8 meters in height.
Get more of what you like and less of what you don't with Flipboard's new rating system. Photo: Flipboard
Seminal magazine-style news aggregation app Flipboard is aiming to compete with Apple News by introducing a system that lets users rate stories and ultimately adjust the mix of their home feed.
“No matter where you are on Flipboard, if you see something you like and want to get more of it in your Cover Stories, tap ‘More like this,'” says the Flipboard website, “If you’d rather see less of something, tap ‘Less like this.’”
Set your iPhone video camera on 1985 with the VHS Camcorder app. Photo: Rarevision
Dust off your father’s Miami Vice suit and start growing a mullet. (Get it permed in back, too.) A new app turns your iPhone’s camera into a 1985-style VHS camcorder, complete with terrible quality and a date stamp.
If you’ve been using Google’s Chrome browser on Mac, you’ve been missing out on some serious performance gains made by Apple with its Safari browser: Not only is Cupertino’s favorite browser faster than Chrome, it also saves battery power.
But Chrome is looking to catch up with a coming update that some Mac users are raving about.
Sony's SmartBand just got more intelligent. Photo: SonySony’s SmartBand just got more intelligent. Photo: Sony
Sony’s second-generation SmartBand 2 is here, and it’s a big improvement over its predecessor. The wearable’s new design packs an intelligent heart rate monitor that constantly measures your excitement and stress levels throughout the day.
iPhone 6c is coming in November. Maybe. Photo: iPhonesoft
Apple could release its 4-inch iPhone 6c in November, according to a new rumor coming out of the supply chain in China.
The report claims that the handset is being assembled by regular Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn, which has started “mass-increasing” its workforce to deal with the task of building not one, not two, but three different iPhone models.
Sometimes trademarks are about defending brand names you’ve spent years and millions of dollars building up. Other times they’re meant as jealous, petty ways of striking back at people who are doing better than you.
Guess which category Swatch’s decision to trademark Steve Jobs’ iconic “One more thing” signature phrase falls under.
In a world filled with frothy pop songs and multimillionaire musicians, it’s not often that a song goes to the top of the iTunes chart based purely on ethical reasons.
That’s exactly what’s happened in Austria, however, where a recorded minute of silence in honor of asylum-seekers trying to escape from countries of conflict has shot to No. 1 on the iTunes music chart — with the money raised going to a local refugee project.