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News - page 1195

Lego brick master turns heads with turntable

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Working turntable, speakers and tube amp by LEGO artist Hayarobi. Photo: LoctiteGirl/Flickr CC
Working turntable, speakers and tube amp by Lego artist Hayarobi. Photo: LoctiteGirl/Flickr CC

Standing in front of a classic turntable, you might not expect to be impressed by the brick work

But it’s the first thing that comes to mind when beholding the sci-fi hi-fi created by Korean Lego artist Hayarobi.

No detail is overlooked on Hayarobi’s record player, which he called The Planet. It consists of more than 2,400 pieces and is powered by a Lego Power Functions Battery Box and LEGO Power Functions M-Motor, according to Huh Magazine.

Charli XCX’s new music video looks like an Apple ad

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Her iPhone's so fancy, but you already know that. Photo: Officialcharlixcx
Her iPhone's so fancy, but you already know that. Photo: Officialcharlixcx

Lesser brands like Samsung have to splash some serious cash to give the impression that they’re cool pieces of technology, but Apple’s so ubiquitous that pop stars are seemingly lining up to feature its products in their music videos.

The latest to create an unofficial Apple ad is pop songstress Charli XCX (a.k.a. the girl who sang the hook on Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy”). In her new video “Famous” — debuted as part of this week’s YouTube Music Award Show — Charli dances around her bedroom texting and watching videos on her iPhone and iPad, before both devices run out of battery, at which point she’s whisked off on a surreal adventure.

Check it out below:

Three reasons Apple will be the world’s first trillion-dollar company

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apple_stock_final
This just keeps getting higher and higher. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Cupertino claimed the title of world’s most valuable company earlier this year, but according to some bullish Wall Street analysts, Apple could soon become the world’s first trillion-dollar company.

In a note to investors today, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brian White increased his target price for Apple shares to $180, putting his estimations well above other analysts’ expectations. Apple shares’ value will increase 40 percent over the next 12 months, according to White’s report.

While Apple naysayers have pointed to slumping iPad sales and the unclear future of the Apple Watch as signs that Apple is weakening, White gives three key reasons why Apple is poised to break the trillion-dollar barrier.

Slide into a TIE Fighter cockpit with awesome Star Wars fan anime

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Strap in, boys, it's gonna be a long fight. Photo: OtaKing
Strap in, boys, it's gonna be a long fight. Photo: OtaKing

Face it, we’ve all imagined ourselves in the hot seat of a TIE fighter or X-wing at some point.

With this hot new fan-made anime, you can finally get your tour of a galaxy far, far away from the perspective of one of the Empire’s sweet Twin Ion Engine pilots. It’s a loving homage not only to the Star Wars franchise, but also to those rad anime shows of yesteryear, like Robotech and Speed Racer

Buckle in and check it out below. You’re gonna love it.

Go down with the ship: Titanic game goes deep on history

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Titanic: Honor and Glory is a game under development that would take players through the full five days of the luxury liners tragic journey. Photo: Four Funnels Entertainment
The Titanic: Honor and Glory game would take players through the full five days of the luxury liner's tragic journey. Photo: Four Funnels Entertainment

Video games let us experience murderous rampages, violent carjackings and the horrors of war. But should virtual entertainment take us through a real-life tragedy with depictions of the actual people who lost their lives?

The developers of Titanic: Honor and Glory are prepared to answer that question as they build out a game based on the 1912 sinking of the luxury liner that claimed more than 1,500 lives.

Apple seeds new iOS 8.3 betas to developers and public

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A new day, a new iOS bug...
iOS 8.3 is here. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

The fourth beta of iOS 8.3 was released to developers today, less than two weeks after Apple dropped the third beta.

Previous betas have added new features like racially diverse emoji, two-factor authentication support for Google, and an option to download free apps without entering your password. The second public beta of iOS 8.3 was also made available to participants of Apple’s public beta testing program.

Along with the iOS 8.3 betas, Apple also released Xcode 6.3 beta 4 with Swift 1.2. The betas are available in the iOS Dev Center or as an over-the-air update if you already have the third beta installed. The release notes don’t mention any major new features, but we’ll let you know what we find once it’s installed.

Here are the direct download links:

Vessel’s new subscription service gives you one more reason to cut the cord

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Get a year of early YouTube access for free. Photo: Vessel
Get a year of early YouTube access for free. Photo: Vessel

Imagine getting early access to videos from your favorite YouTube channels, like Good Mythical Morning or Smosh.

Now imagine paying for the privilege.

Vessel, from former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar and CTO Richard Tom, proposes you do just that: pay $2.99 per month to get your videos three days earlier than the rest of the internet.

You’re not alone if you think this is a tough sell to a market obsessed with getting things for free, but Hulu Plus (which offered shows seven days earlier for a fee) did pretty well with the model, becoming the fastest paid subscription service, according to Kilar.

The team has also made the first year of Vessel for free, so that will help.

Apple TV adds TED Talks, Young Hollywood, and Tastemade channels

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Apple-TV
Photo: Cult of Mac
Photo: Cult of Mac

Apple TV is boosting up its channel lineup ahead of the company’s rumored launch of a stand-alone streaming service. Channels for TED Talks, Young Hollywood, and Tastemade were added to the Apple TV homescreen this morning, bringing viewers a new selection of cooking tutorials, celebrity TV shows, and educational talks.

TED Talks serves up a number of presentations given by intellectuals all over the world, focusing on a myriad of topics ranging from body language to how we discovered DNA. Young Hollywood offers users a range of celebrity-focused shows, interviews, and other programming all available for free. Aspiring chefs can find a bevy of cooking shows in the Tastemade channel that features food adventure shows, cooking shows, and also video city guides.

Logitech reboots a beloved mouse for Mac users

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The top of the Logitech MX Master mouse.
The new Logitech MX Master takes pains to be a great Mac mouse.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

SAN FRANCISCO — To make its mouse of the future, Logitech looked to the past. The MX Master, a reboot of a classic Logitech mouse that brings back a long-lost feature while adding significant modern upgrades, is perfect for the port-deficient new MacBook.

The MX Master resurrects the nifty scroll wheel that was a killer feature of the MX Revolution, which Logitech released in 2006. The Revolution’s clever scroll wheel seemed to shift gears on the fly, going from slow to speedy and letting you zip through long webpages and documents. The feature helped turned the Revolution into a hit, but the scroll wheel went away in subsequent Logitech mice, causing fans to weep for their loss when their beloved mouse finally crapped out.

The MX Master brings back the innovative scroll wheel with a vengeance.

How to surf the internet on a vintage Macintosh Plus

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Imagine surfing PornHub on this. Photo: Jeff Keacher
Imagine surfing PornHub on this. Photo: Jeff Keacher

When the Macintosh Plus was released 27 years ago, it was the most powerful Mac on the market. It even contained a SCSI port, which opened the door to the Macintosh getting a modem. Eventually, there were even internet browsers released for the Macintosh Plus.

That got Jeff Keacher over at the Daily Dot thinking. What would it be like to plug a 1976 Macintosh Plus into the modern web? Surprise surprise — it was absolute torture.

Steve Jobs had to be convinced that multi-touch was the future

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How much is your smartphone spying on you? Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Where would the iPhone and iPad be without multi-touch? Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Steve Jobs may have had an astonishing ability to predict where tech was going next, but he very nearly missed out on the iPhone and iPad altogether.

That’s because — according to a quote from Jony Ive in today’s freshly-released biography, Becoming Steve Jobs — Apple’s late CEO didn’t see “any value to the idea” of multi-touch: the breakthrough touchscreen technology which makes iOS regulars like “pinch-to-zoom” possible.

And it was left up to Ive and a few other core Apple employees to save it.

Eternally optimistic dog simply cannot catch food

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fritz
Maybe don't quit your day job for a shot at the big leagues, Fritz. Photo: Youtube

Fritz the Golden Retriever may be adorable with his bandanna and soulful doggy eyes, but man he can’t catch a damn thing. Well, except maybe a french fry near the end of this hilarious video that looks like it was shot on an iPhone in slo-mo mode.

Since it’s National Puppy Day, let’s all empathize with this sad canine and wonder — what kind of owner keeps tossing food at its head?

Woof.

Steve Jobs’ high school classmates cash in on their yearbooks

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There's a new gold rush for a remnant of the late CEO's upbringing.
There's a new gold rush for a remnant of the late CEO's upbringing. Photo: eBay

Those lucky enough to have gone to high school with Steve Jobs are starting to cash in on their connection to the late Apple co-founder.

The world’s obsession with all things Jobs has extended to his days as a young, long-haired high schooler. A 1972 Homestead High School yearbook with Jobs’ senior picture sold today for over $12,000, and now more yearbooks are being auctioned off at hefty prices.

Tim Cook still hasn’t deleted Steve Jobs from his contacts

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Photo: Apple.
Photo: Apple.

It’s been over three years since Steve Jobs died, however the hole he left at Apple and those closest to him still hasn’t been filled. Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli’s upcoming book Becoming Steve Jobs is full of anecdotes and events that showcase just how much Steve meant to his friends.

One such event happened in 2013, during Laurene Powell Jobs’ fiftieth birthday. Pixar CEO John Lasseter recounts in the book that he got there early and started talking to Tim Cook.

“Do you miss him? I really miss Steve,” Lasseter said, and then pulled out iPhone to show Tim that Jobs phone number and photo were still on the list.

Apple launches website offering free Apple Pay decals

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Photo: Apple
Photo: Apple

Apple Pay has quickly become the most-used mobile wallet solution in the world, but finding businesses that accept it still isn’t all that easy. To help ease that pain, Apple launched a website today that offers free Apple Pay decals that participating merchants can apply to their registers and windows.

Twitter injects autoplaying video ads into iOS app

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Twitter
Twitter is testing auto-playing video. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Twitter is looking to take a swipe at YouTube’s viral video crown by adding a new feature that will automatically play videos in your timeline.

Starting today, some Twitter users in the U.S. on iPhone and iPad may see videos that start playing, whether you want them to or not. This goes for videos ads and users uploaded videos alike, as the company tests whether people are more likely to sit through a video if the action’s already started.

Layout your Instagrams, with new app

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Instagram introduced a new app called Layout that allows users to combine multiple photos in one image. Photo: Instagram
Instagram introduced a new app called Layout that allows users to combine multiple photos in one image. Photo: Instagram

The Instagram faithful churns out 70 million photos daily. But if you weren’t able to share your meal or tell the story of your quirky cat in a single picture, you had to post multiple photos.

That changed Monday. Instagram introduced Layout, a new free app that lets you combine images into a single post. The news was announced on the Instagram blog.

Users can open Layout and drag and drop photos from their camera roll to any of the custom templates. Flip, rotate, resize and create mirror effects in your layouts.

Apple’s nod turns maddening Mr. Jump into an overnight sensation

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The power of the Apple can be a crazy thing. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
The power of the Apple can be a crazy thing. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Getting your game featured by Apple is the best way to jumpstart your indie game success. Sometimes, even games that seem rather basic at first glance can become powerhouses.

Mr. Jump is seeing some phenomenal success with five million downloads in the last five days since its release. It’s shaping up to be another Crossy Road-style success story, and the developers at 1Button games attribute the game’s instant success to Apple.

“I think that being featured by Apple in most countries has initiated the buzz,” says
Jérémie Francone, one of the co-founders at the studio. “That’s what really launched the game.”

Woz: ‘The future is scary and very bad for people’

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Woz, doing his part to help computers takeover the world. Photo: Apple
Woz, doing his part to help computers takeover the world. Photo: Apple

Tech pioneers like Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking, and Elon Musk have warned humanity of the dangers of AI for years, and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak says he’s finally a beliver in the doomsday scenarios.

“Computers are going to take over from humans, no question,” Woz told the Australian Financial Review in a recent interview from his US home.

The man who sparked the personal computer revolution with the invention of the Apple II says ‘the future is scary and very bad for people’ because computers will eventually get faster than us and wipe us out.

Indie dev parodies internet life for fun and profit

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Nathalie Lawhead makes art that you can buy (and play for free). Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Nathalie Lawhead makes art that you can buy (and play for free). Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Nathalie Lawhead speaks swiftly, a gentle European lilt in her accent. On the screen behind her is a random-seeming collection of internet memes rendered in outsider art chic. At first glance, her games look absolutely absurd, random, and ridiculous.

“If Monty Python made games, the Orange County-based developer told Cult of Mac at the Game Developers conference last month, “this is what they would look like.”

12-year-old girl tries to poison mom for taking away iPhone

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The iPhone 6s is selling like hotcakes.
iAddiction is real. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Separating kids from their iPhones and iPads can be a big struggle for most parents, but for one mom in Boulder Colorado, things got down right deadly after her daughter tried to poison her for taking away an iPhone.

Two charges of attempted first degree murder were eventually filed against the daughter, who mixed household bleach into her mom’s drinks trying to kill her.

Boulder County’s sheriff office detained the 12-year-old girl at a juvenile center after her mother noticed a bleach smell in her smoothie a few days earlier. Officers say the mom thought the daughter had just cleaned the glass and that there was a lingering bleach sent. Then she got sick.

Forget Apple Watch: Flamethrowers are the hot new thing

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The XM42 Flamethrower by Ion Productions. Photo: Ion Productions/YouTube
The XM42 Flamethrower by Ion Productions. Photo: Ion Productions/YouTube

One company suggests you could use their product to keep the neighbors on edge while the competition promises “endless possibilities of entertainment.”

Gosh, they’re both right. I need a flamethrower.

Two companies with very different designs are working to meet the needs of a public clamoring to clear brush or light their bonfires from a distance with devices that look like like the tool soldiers once used to clear jungles and machine gun nests during times of war.

Apple Store leaks images of new wireless keyboard with backlit LEDs

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LED backlighting coming soon? Photo: Apple
LED backlighting coming soon? Photo: Apple

Apple redesigned the LED backlights for the new MacBook keyboard, and it appears a similar update could be coming soon to the Apple Wireless Keyboard.

Several images of an updated keyboard appeared on the online Apple Store for the Czech Republic as well as an Arabic keyboard in the U.S. store. Some of the images of the keyboard have already been pulled, but the redesign adds toggles for brightness to the F5 and F6 keys, as well as a power button on in the upper right corner.

Manufacturing issues could slash Apple Watch supply in half

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Find out how to work your Apple Watch. Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
Demand is there for the Apple Watch, but is supply? Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

Apple may not sell close to the number of Apple Watches it wants to in the coming months — and it’ll have nothing to do with lack of demand on the part of customers.

According to a new report, Apple’s plans to manufacture between 2.5 and 3 million smartwatches every month could be cut by as much as half thanks to supplier yield problems, which mean that only 1.25 – 1.5 million watches are being churned out every four weeks.

Square Cash introduces the best bet to kill checks

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Photo: Square
Photo: Square

Square Cash is one of those few apps I can show my non-techy friends and immediately get a wide-eyed, “whoa” kind of response. Its ability to quickly send and receive money is super slick.

Today two big changes to Square Cash will make it an even more attractive peer-to-peer payments service. First, anyone can now create a web profile for accepting money without needing a standalone app. Second, businesses and nonprofits can get in on the action.