Apple just delivered a huge update to users with the release of iOS 8.3 last week, now it’s giving developers a preview of it’s upcoming redesign of the Music app with iOS 8.4 beta 1.
The new iOS 8.4 beta is available now in the iOS Dev Center and includes new Music app with an all-new design that makes exploring your music collection “easier and more fun.”
We’ll let you know what new features we find. In the meantime, here’s Apple’s description of the new Music app:
Apple scored a huge win for Apple TV by making it the only platform your can watch HBO Now on for the next three months, and according to a new report, Apple might be rewarding HBO by taking a much lower cut on subscription fees than cable companies.
Apple has been taking a 30 percent cut anytime a company signs up a customer for a service through an iOS app. Publishers bristled at Apple’s policy when it was introduced in 2011, however, when it comes to subscriptions purchased through Apple TV, Apple has decided to reduced its take by 50%.
Arganalth, a 23-year old engineer from Lille, France gives old computer hardware a second life by creating electrical orchestras in a suitcase.
His latest masterpiece plays Nirvana’s “Smell’s Like Teen Spirit,” only instead of strumming the cords on a Fender Mustang, all the distortion and rock is provided by a couple floppy disks and hard disk drives, with a Raspberry Pi as the conductor. It’s one of the most popular new music videos on YouTube right now, and it doesn’t take like to appreciate why.
Listen to the full performance below:
Spain’s government has passed a series of laws that criminalize some forms of protest. But authorities may find it challenging to arrest holograms.
The group No Somos Delito, or We Are Not Crime, fired back at the government Friday using irony and digital technology with a projected hologram rally in front of Spain’s parliament.
Human rights groups were outraged when the conservative government passed laws in December that were seen as silencing protests over Spain’s austerity programs.
While we might all be waiting breathlessly for Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron this summer, there’s another big contender for tiny superhero dominance: Ant Man.
Starring Paul Rudd as Scott Lang, Ant Man will show up on the big screen this July. The new trailer below gives us the first glimpse of Rudd in his Ant Man suit, which gives the character superhuman strength, the ability to shrink to a miniscule size, and the ability to communicate and control ants.
It’s a pretty ridiculous set of powers, but, as Rudd says near the end of the trailer, “I know; it wasn’t my idea.”
The crazy machines are at it again, only this time it’s not what we’ve come to expect from the long-running Terminator franchise, now coming to theaters in July as Terminator: Genisys
In the first film, Arnold Schwarzenegger played the original bad-ass invincible robot from the future out to kill Sarah Connor, originally played by Linda Hamilton, and her son John. Subsequent movies with the governator messed with the formula a bit, bringing in the scary liquid metal terminators and placing the original metal skeleton monster into a savior role.
But none of the movies have gone this far in messing with our heads or the plotline.
Spoilers abound; consider yourself warned.
Apple gave its video editing software Final Cut Pro X a big new update this morning that includes new features like 3D titles and GPU-accelerated RED RAW processing. A number of updates were also added to Final Cut Pro X’s companion apps Compressor and Motion.
The Final Cut Pro 10.2 release is the 15th update since Apple drastically overhauled its video editing software in 2011, bringing more professional features to draw in more video producers. Perhaps the biggest features is the addition of iTunes Store Package to Compressor that makes it easier than ever for movie makers to package and sell an films on iTunes.
“From Hollywood blockbuster directors to first time movie makers, Final Cut Pro X is changing the way we edit movies today,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “The updated Final Cut Pro X, Motion and Compressor make it even easier to edit, title and package everything from short videos to feature-length films.”
Here’s some of the changes coming today:
You would have thought King Kong taught us never to fly too close to primates.
Like the giant silver screen ape swatting fighter planes out of the air, a chimpanzee at the Royal Burgers’ Zoo in the Netherlands defended its habitat with a long stick to knock down a camera-carrying drone flying over its habitat.
The GoPro camera survived the crash and managed to record everything, from the stick-wielding chimp making a ferocious face as it made a direct hit to the quadrocopter to the crash aftermath of the curious chimps looking into the camera before it destroyed the drone.
Up until now, the majority of iPhones have been built in China, but long-time Apple manufacturer Foxconn could be setting its sights on a new developing market: India.
According to the Economic Times, the Foxconn Technology Group is set to pour money into three new facilities in India — based in the country’s Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh provinces — with a view to building iPhones for its biggest client.
There are just two of us in the apartment, but power strips and bulky USB adapters charging our various devices take up room in every room.
The founders of SnapPower are building a company around the electrical outlet to bring order to household cords.
After the success of an outlet plate with built-in LED lights, the Orem, Utah company already has raised thousands of dollars on Kickstarter to produce an electrical outlet cover with a sleek, built-in USB charger.
If researchers at Slice Intelligence are to be believed, the Apple Watch scored big when it became available for preorders last week.
How big? Try 957,000 people preordering in the U.S. on Friday alone — with the more-affordable Apple Watch Sport model racking up the biggest number of sales.
Check out more of the breakdown figures and interesting sales stats below.
Recently, Apple sparked a little bit of confusion when they announced that every Apple Watch Sport would contain two separate bands. People interpreted that to mean that it shipped with two complete bands: one for small and medium wrists, and one for large wrists. But the truth is more complicated. Bad news for swappers.
Last month, we reported that the Apple Watch boasted a secret port that could be used in the future to unlock cool accessories… and, maybe, jailbreak the Apple Watch. Later reports, though, indicated that this port was an Apple-only diagnostic port, that could be missing from retail models.
If that’s true, though, no one told Apple’s retail stores. The Apple Watch units available for try-on appointments at Apple Stores around the world still have the diagnostic port.
It’s the weekend, which means it’s time to catch up on all of the new apps you might have missed throughout the week.
The all-new CleanMyMac is here to... er.. clean your Mac, an update to the best app finder out there, a crazy awesome app for mixing drinks, and a great language translation app made it into this week’s roundup.
Without further ado, here are this week’s awesome apps!
If you didn’t make it down to the SoCal desert this weekend for the massive Coachella music festival, fear not — most of the action is being streamed live on Youtube.
Fire it up on your Apple TV, and you can enjoy Jack White, The War on Drugs, Interpol, Clean Bandit, Tyler the Creator, Run the Jewels, alt-J, The Weeknd and tons more.
However, the YouTube streams are a bit tricky to find; as is a simple guide to what’s being broadcast.
Here’s how to find it, and the full webcast schedule by time:
CHICAGO — I grabbed the black suit jacket I was married in because I wasn’t sure how to dress for a private appointment to try on a $10,000 gold watch.
My look is challenging to class up. The clean-shaven head, long goatee and ample belly blend in better at a biker bar. But I felt halfway respectable-looking when I walked into the Apple Store in Chicago’s upscale Lincoln Park neighborhood for a Saturday morning hands-on showing of the Apple Watch Edition.
Not many Apple Stores are scheduling appointments for the 18-karat gold Edition, but the ones that do provide extra-special attention. I had a friendly guide, two floor supervisors who came by to shake my hand and thank me for my patience, and a couple of hawk-eyed security guards.
This week: get’em while they’re hot! The Apple Watch is ready for pre-order, but the reviews are in, and they’re a mixed bag. Plus: what’s good in iOS 8.3 and OS X 10.10.3; Robert Baratheon makes HBO NOW a no-brainer; Samsung is up to their old tricks; the new Macbook didn’t benchmark well, but it might not matter; and things get weird in an all-new Get to Know Your Cultist!
Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Squarespace 7 is live, and it’s their biggest update in years. Now building a beautiful website is faster and easier than ever. Learn more at Squarespace.com/seven and use code “CultCast” at checkout for 10% off any order.
Full show notes ahead!
Customer reviews on the App Store are good for business. It’s not just that good reviews can improve your app’s ranking. Reviews have also helped me build a better app.
But with all the fake reviews and haters out there, it’s sometimes hard to see the wood from the trees. The trick is to know exactly which reviews to pay attention to — and the secret is all in your stars.
Want to try on the super-fancy $10,000 Apple Watch Edition? You might have to do a bit of driving, because in a whopping 75 percent of the United States, it’s totally impossible to demo the solid gold Apple smartwatch.
Only 12 states (and the District of Columbia) have Apple Stores taking appointments to check out the Apple Watch Edition. That leaves 38 states that are apparently not fancy or fashionable enough to offer demos of the schmanciest Apple Watch of all. To see if you live in one of them, check out Cult of Mac’s handy map below, but be prepared to weep.
SAN FRANCISCO — Like a lot of people, I took the midnight plunge and bought an Apple Watch before I’d even tried it on.
But today, I got to see the device I bought last night. I went down to the flagship Apple Store in San Francisco and tried on a range of watches.
I wish I’d done this before, because I might have ordered differently.
Not content with only Apple Watch pre-orders and a slim new MacBook, Apple has quietly classed up the Beats Solo 2 wireless headphone line with some fairly familiar colors: Silver, Gold, and Space Gray.
You know it’s an Apple joint when Space Gray shows up.
Tim Cook was spotted at the Apple Store in Palo Alto this morning, greeting customers who had come in to get a first look at the Apple Watch.
The Apple CEO said he was impressed with the enthusiasm behind Apple Watch, stating “customers have been giving us great feedback and orders have been great, as well.” Apple Watch pre-orders sold out within hours this morning, with all units now not shipping until June.
Before Cook left he gave fans a glimpse of the stainless steel Apple Watch he’s been wearing with a custom red Digital Crown. Check out in the video below:
Helsinki-based developer Everywear Games surely had to rethink the way they pitch when they decided to make an Apple Watch game. Runeblade, the team’s casual fantasy-adventure made only for the Apple Watch, will launch onto Apple’s diminutive third screen later this month.
“The game is designed to be played in 5-15 second sessions and builds over time as you progress through the journey,” said CEO Aki Järvilehto in a statemnent. “We’re excited to help pioneer game development on Apple Watch with a fully original title designed specifically for smartwatch gaming.”
The team has released a trailer to tease the game, and it looks interesting, if a bit tiny. It is a game meant to be played on your wrist. With one hand.
When #TheDress went viral, you might have tweeted about it, or argued over the color with your Facebook friends. You may have forwarded that video of the Llamas giving merry chase, or the Left Shark messing up its dance moves during Katy Perry’s halftime show.
Indie game developers, however, saw an opportunity.
With games like Left Shark Dance Attack, Super WeaselPecker, and the addition of The Dress to the existing game Fashion Story, these game makers seized the opportunity of the moment and brought these viral memes into the digital realm for fun…and hopefully a quick profit.
“We understand these types of games have a short shelf life,” Evan S of Left Shark Dance Attack‘s Best Apps LLC told us, “but most games on the App Store have a short shelf life.”
For nerds of all stripe, this Sunday night will be an imploding black hole of greatness, with the Season 5 premiere of Game of Thrones, and, right after that, the Season 2 debut of our favorite tech-themed dramedy, Silicon Valley.
In the delightfully awkward trailer, you’ll see the boys rounding up their VC resources to compete with Google stand-in Hooli, who’s hot on the Pied Piper trail to get their algorithms for data compression to market first.
Get your Apple TV ready, because Sunday is all HBO.