News - page 1179

This week: For years Apple has reportedly been working their magic on the worst device in every home—the remote control. And now, with a rumored new Apple TV on the the horizon, we’ll tell you why an Apple-hewn controller could be its flagship feature. Plus: how to create your own Apple Watch band; how to share your digital heartbeat with other lonely Apple Watch wearers; and we vote on our favorite new gadgets on an all-new Faves ’N Raves.

Our thanks to lynda.com for sponsoring this episode! Learn virtually any application at your own pace from expert-taught video tutorials at lynda.com.

Full show notes ahead!

As an iOS developer, I’m frequently asked, “When are you going to do an Android version?” Like it is just a matter of time.

But the truth is, we’ll probably never support Android. While there are sound business rationales for this, my motives are rooted in design philosophy.

This week, we focus on four non-obvious yet essential tips and tricks for using that fancy new Apple Watch on your wrist. Rob plays a new Apple Watch game, calling Lifeline the best game he’s played on his wrist, while Leander takes a speedy trip around the block on Stromer’s amazing electric bike. Luke digs into an Apple patent for a magical new Apple TV remote, and Buster checks in on how the Apple Watch will likely prevent heart attacks in the future.

All that and much, much more in the weekly installment of Cult of Mac Magazine!

The days of free music streaming could be over if Apple gets its way, and its ready to make the transition smoother with Soundcloud-like free samples to go with its new streaming service.

Negotiations between Apple and music labels are still on-going for the new service that could launch as soon as WWDC, but according to a new report, Apple plans to offer listeners several ways to still play some music without paying for it.

The Apple Watch heart rate monitor is far better than everyone thought, and that could theoretically lead to big medical breakthroughs — like the ability to can apple watch detect heart attack before they happen.

Developer Brad Larson dug into raw Apple Watch HealthKit heart rate data after a run and compared it to data from a heart rate monitor he had been wearing. The Apple Watch doesn’t have Food and Drug Administration approval as a medical device, but Larson discovered the wearable is nearly as accurate as an electrocardiogram.

Losing the TV remote may soon become a thing of the past, now that it’s going to be permanently strapped to your wrist. DirecTV debuted its Apple Watch app this morning that gives customers the ability to control their DVRs from Apple Watch’s tiny display.

Goat Simulator is one of the weirdest games to hit iOS since forever, but makers Coffee Stain Studios have come up with a way to make their glitch-filled title even zanier — by incorporating brain-munching zombies.

Check out the trailer below.

We know all you good boys and girls have had your Mother’s Day gifts wrapped and hidden in the basement for weeks and weeks, but the staff here at Cult of Mac has been so busy covering all the Apple Watch that the holiday crept up on us. So we thought we would share our last-minute Mother’s Day gift guide with you, in case you’re in the same sad boat.

Let’s be honest, though, most of these items come straight from wish lists of the Cult of Mac wives, so even if you already picked out the perfect Mother’s Day gifts for mom, who doesn’t like a “just because you rock” gift?

Moshi Urbana briefcase (above) — $149.95

Smart, stylish and surprisingly spacious, Moshi’s Urbana briefcase will swallow a 15-inch MacBook and still have room for mom’s iPad, books and everything else she always seems to have on hand during a time of emergency. The Urbana offers plenty of pockets for organizing the essentials, plus water-resistant protection from the elements. Geeky enough to make a nerdy mom happy, while stylish enough to not be embarrassing.

Buy from: Amazon

Given the enormous success of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Apple’s going to have to pull out all the stops if it hopes to boost sales further with its next major iPhone redesign. This iPhone 7 concept, created by designer extraordinaire Martin Hajek, certainly presents enough of a “wow” factor to do it!

Check out more of Hajek’s pictures below.

As the largest crowdsourced medical data-gathering app ever, ResearchKit is arguably one of the most important inventions of recent times. And according to LifeMap Solutions, the company behind inaugural ResearchKit app Asthma Health, it’s more than living up to its promise.

In an official ResearchKit blog post, a rep for the company describes how users are as engaged with Asthma Health — an app which monitors asthma symptoms across a variety of conditions — as they are with social networks and games!

Claiming that Apple is infringing on several of its patents, Ericsson has ramped up its legal efforts against the company by expanding lawsuits to cover Germany, Britain and the Netherlands.

“Apple continues to profit from Ericsson’s technology without having a valid license in place,” said Kasim Alfalahi, chief intellectual property officer at Ericsson, adding that he is confident the courts will resolve the matter fairly.

Let’s just leave aside the obvious Apple Maps jokes and focus on how cool this Etsy user’s Westeros map is.

It’s the continent where the war, sex and epic political conniving takes place in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, made to look like a modern map you might find on your iPhone or Mac.

How cool is that?

Fitbit is looking to make a splash on Wall Street by filing to go public. The company behind the Flex activity trackers announced it is looking to raise $100 million in an initial public offering later this year.

Fitbit sold 10.2 million devices last year, and is the first wearable technology company to go public. But now that Apple Watch is available to the public, Fibit is warning investors in its filing that it could potentially be “more competitive than our products and services.”

Full quote below:

Rusty Griswold is all grown up in the upcoming reboot of classic comedy National Lampoon’s Vacation. If you’ve ever laughed out loud when someone says “prairie-doggin’,” you’ll love this new reboot just as much, what with it’s scatological and sexual humor.

Bonus: The new red-band trailer for the upcoming flick gives us a look at Thor’s Chris Hemsworth playing an Airbnb owner and showing off his six-pack abs (along with his other, less-family-friendly assets).

If you’ve got an extra $14,000 to $18,500 sitting around, you might consider grabbing yourself one of these bad boys from Japanese manufacturer ELP.

The ELP Laser Turntable promises the best in fidelity when playing your precious vinyl records because it uses a laser, not a needle, to decode the music that’s been cut into your LPs.

I’m addicted to my iPhone. Aren’t we all? The addiction is so deep and universal that CultCast host Erfon Elijah spent a good three minutes yesterday convincing me it’s totally OK to cruise Instagram from a urinal.

“Just don’t don’t gram yourself,” he said.

Worse things could come of a smartphone addiction than an accidental nudie pic, and that’s exactly what happens in this hilarious animated short film. Cartoon characters, completely oblivious to the world around them, stay glued to their screens and continue to tap, tap, tap away while slamming into poles, getting stripped of clothes, and walking into burning buildings.

Check out the funny three-minute film:

Do you like your music hot? I mean really hot?

If so, the Sound Torch could be the Bluetooth speaker of your dreams. The in-development audio device is headed for Kickstarter with a proof-of-concept video that should make fire marshals nervous.

See it in action, and get a taste of the creators’ crazy ambitions, below.

How much profit do you think you’d make per day if you coded a Top 10 paid app in the Mac App Store? $10,000? Maybe even $20,000 a day?

While the iOS App Store has been a gold mine for developers, the paychecks aren’t nearly as fat on OS X. Sam Soffes is an app developer whose Mac app Redacted reached No. 8 top paid in the United States and No. 1 top paid in Graphics at the end of launch day. It also sat at the top of Product Hunt with 538 votes.

All those eyeballs surely meant big bucks, but when friends on Twitter tried to guess how much Soffes had raked in — the average guess was $12,460.67 — the real number was much, much lower.

Mother’s Day is quickly approaching, which means that annual 30-minute phone call with mom is just around the corner. For me, it’s borderline unbearable to talk on the phone that long, but the folks over at Daily Dot have imagined how much worse it’d be if your mom was Siri — and misunderstood you just as badly as the digital assistant does on iOS.

Apple’s operations whiz Jeff Williams will be a speaker at the second Code Conference, held May 26 to 28.

The conference represents a rare opportunity to hear from the man who oversaw the development of the Apple Watch, as well as helping Apple progress from shipping 10 million iPhones in 2008 to more than 74 million in the last three months of 2014 alone.

The concept artists who envisioned the future of the automobile created edgy, forward-thinking illustrations knowing their works might never be seen — and would likely get destroyed.

But some of the forward-looking art created during Detroit’s “Golden Age of Automotive Design” made it outside company walls, thanks to artists who lined overcoats with drawings or used boxes with false bottoms to smuggle out their work.

The car-centric art is the subject of a current exhibit at Lawrence Technological University in Detroit and is the subject of an upcoming documentary on PBS called American Dreaming.

Apple could introduce its own iOS-exclusive social network, according to a patent application published today.

Described broadly as “Lifestyle-Based Social Groups,” the application may be used to set up real-world childcare groups, lift-sharing, dining clubs etc., by automatically determining your interests and then pointing you toward similar people.

Spotify’s not happy about the way that Apple charges a 30 percent fee toward sales thorough its App Store, including subscription services.

The tax structure means that in order for Spotify to make $9.99 per month for its premium service it has had to raise the app subscription price to $12.99 — which prices it out of the market compared to the lower-cost Apple-owned Beats Music service, set to launch this summer.

If Apple ever does get around to building an electric car, no-one would welcome the move more than Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

In Tesla’s Q1 earnings call yesterday, the pioneering entrepreneur behind Tesla, Space X and, most recently, revolutionary solar batteries chimed in on Apple’s reported electric car plans.

Here’s what he had to say.

CBS just landed Supergirl, the network’s first series pick up for the upcoming season.

This is, of course, rather historic, since the last decent female-led superhero show was 1975’s Wonder Woman, starring Lynda Carter. It’s even got a chance of being pretty good, as it’s coming from the same creators of successful DC properties The Flash and Arrow, both over on the CW Network.

The less said the better about Electro Woman and Dyna Girl or the more modern yet still awful Birds of Prey.