Play with an Apple Watch ahead of release with this emulator! Photo: Cult of Mac
Can’t wait to get your hands on the Apple Watch? Well, tough, you’ll have to. But if you’d just like to play around with the interface, we can help you out, thanks to this new online Apple Watch simulator.
Samsung will reportedly have a hand in the Apple Watch. Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
Samsung reportedly has Apple’s blessing to manufacture the processors for the Apple Watch, which will be allegedly be made using the company’s 28nm process technology.
The order would come at just the right time for Samsung, which recently announced another quarter of poor earnings: giving it its first annual profit decline since 2011.
With Samsung’s mobile division in the toilet, the company needs to focus on other areas, like securing orders for chip fabrication.
Do you feel nervous when you're away from your iPhone? Photo: Cult of Mac Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
With the exception that most of us don’t routinely change our wives or husbands every couple of years for a newer, slimmer model, owning an iPhone can be a lot like being in a relationship.
And just like any relationship, time apart can lead to separation anxiety and other negative psychological effects.
A new study carried out by researchers from the University of Missouri suggests that iPhone users should avoid being parted from their iPhones during daily situations requiring large amounts of attention — such as taking tests, sitting in meetings, or carrying out important work assignments.
Apple is finally on the "same planet" as iPhone 6 demand. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
During Apple’s earnings call in October, Tim Cook described Apple supply as not being “on the same planet” when it came to matching demand for the iPhone 6. “It’s very difficult to gauge demand without first finding the balance,” he noted.
Well, jump forward a few months and it seems that balance has finally been achieved — since Apple’s online store in the U.S. is now showing all capacities, colors and carriers as in-stock for both the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
North Korea's new operating system looks suspiciously familiar. Photo: North Korea Tech
The newest version of North Korea’s state-controlled operating system was made available to the public for the first time ever this week. The last version (Red Star 2.0) was designed to look just like Windows, but for the sequel, Kim Jong Un’s minions have taken some inspiration from Apple and completely redesigned their Linux-based operating system to look just like OS X.
Red Star 3.0 was leaked via torrents a few days ago. We wouldn’t recommend installing it, but the folks at The Next Web took the plunge and discovered the painstaking details Pyongyang went through to replicate OS X.
Everything from the dock, menu bars, settings, and even the spinning beachball of doom, have been ported over to the operating system. A few remnants of the Windows copying days still linger, like the ability to run Windows 3.1 apps, but the rest of Red Star 3.0 is full OS X clone through and through.
Apple's French website has been updated with the "Je Suis Charlie" message. Screenshot: Apple
Apple’s French website has been updated with a stark black line and the simple message “Je Suis Charlie” (“I am Charlie”) in solidarity with victims of Wednesday’s terror attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine.
The murderous rampage, allegedly conducted by French brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, left 12 dead, including four of the satirical magazine’s editorial cartoonists and two policemen. While French authorities search for the brothers, a third suspect, Hamyd Mourad, is reportedly cooperating after surrendering.
ReSound's LiNX hearing aid pairs with iPhones to add surprisingly useful functionality. Photo: ReSound Photo:
LAS VEGAS — Hearing aids aren’t sexy, so a lot of journalists here at International CES breezed right by ReSound’s booth.
The Danish company has been in the hearing aid business for 75 years, and launched the first iPhone-connected hearing aid at CES last year. Now the company is a back with a full lineup of iPhone-compatible LiNX hearing aids. The devices address the whole range of hearing loss, from the mild to severe.
As I approach 50, I’m wondering if I need a pair myself, so I went to check them out. I was impressed. Connecting a hearing aid to an iPhone adds a lot of very useful functionality.
The iPhone: coming soon to a business near you. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac Photo:
Apple is serious about getting its products into the enterprise market — and to prove it, it’s calling in the services of longtime Hewlett-Packard executive John Solomon to take charge.
Solomon’s precise job title and role at Apple are unclear, but according to the well-connected Re/code, he will be helping Apple “boost sales to big companies and government agencies with large technology budgets.”
LAS VEGAS — In a sea of iPhone cases and other Apple-related gizmos, one would expect to find at least a few Apple Watch accessories at CES.
Sure, the Watch itself won’t come out for probably a few more months, but we already know what it looks like and a lot about how its apps will work. Where are the companies looking to hitch their wagons to Apple’s next big thing?
Out of the 3,679 exhibitors spread across the 2.06 million square feet of show floor at International CES this year, there is only one Apple Watch accessory, and it’s an unfinished prototype.
iDevices' HomeKit-compatible Switch lets you control anything you plug into it using an iOS app. Photo: iDevices
LAS VEGAS — iDevices’ first HomeKit-compatible product will be a simple on-off switch that turns your iPhone into a remote control for lamps and appliances.
The $49.99 rectangular device plugs into an outlet. You plug a standard electrical device like a lamp or stereo into its convenient side outlet, and then you can turn that device on and off remotely. Switch comes in plain white, although a colored band of lights can be programmed to glow in custom colors to brighten up a dark hallway.
“You can change it to any color you like,” said Dan Cepa, iDevices’ senior director of sales, during CES International.
The iHealth Gateway blood-glucose monitor can make caregivers' jobs easier. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac Photo:
LAS VEGAS — Monitoring diabetes can be a pain (literally). Keeping track of your loved one’s diabetes is even harder, especially if you’re trying to ensure your tech-illiterate grandmother’s blood-sugar levels aren’t spiking.
Now you’ll finally be able to monitor all their vital stats from your iPhone, even if grandma’s not using one too.
iHealth revealed its new iHealth Gateway collection of devices at International CES here this week. The line of products allow loved ones or doctors to remotely monitor personal health stats for senior citizens who eschew iOS devices. All grandma and grandpa have to do is prick their finger with the supported blood-glucose monitor, and the Gateway hub will beam the data to their caretaker’s device. No more worries about whether they’re keeping up with their meds.
Older games that we all loved and played relentlessly as kids tend to disappear as the old operating systems that we played them on are sent out to pasture.
The Internet Archive, a free library of millions of free books, movies, websites, and other media, has also archived thousands of older MS_DOS games, like Maniac Mansion, Prince of Persia, and–yes–Oregon Trail, and has given us all access to them for free.
Turns out, you can still get dysentery while traveling to Oregon, even if you haven’t kept your old PC or Mac to play the seminal educational game on.
“The collection includes action, strategy, adventure and other unique genres of game and entertainment software,” writes Jason Scott, the Software Librarian for the Internet Archive. “Through the use of the EM-DOSBOX in-browser emulator, these programs are bootable and playable.”
Graphic artist and photographer Alberto Seveso mixed metal ink with water for this luminescent creation. Photo: Alberto Seveso
If you look at the work of photographer and graphic artist Alberto Seveso, you might inadvertently feel you’re in the throes of a Rorschach inkblot test.
You are staring at ink for sure and, mesmerized, you can’t help but process what the eyes and brain see. Looks like lava, melted plastic or the gas explosions from an evolving star in deep space. The heart will no doubt see beauty but the gut may roil and struggle.
Seveso, a highly sought-after editorial and commercial photographer, hopes he is stirring our insides when he captures the fleeting art of ink or paint being poured into water.
The Hexo+ flies high for stunning aerial photography. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac Photo:
LAS VEGAS — Drones are everywhere at the International CES show. You can’t walk though the South Hall without hearing the feverish buzz of quadrocopter wings luring people to their booths.
Most of the new drones we’ve seen are either too expensive for normal people, or they’re cheap and lack compelling features. But after hours of searching we’ve found the one drone you should pay attention to in 2015: The Hexo+.
On the outside, Hexo+ doesn’t look too different from other drones, but it packs a killer “auto-follow” feature that will allow budding drone photographers to capture epic aerial videos without needing a dedicated pilot to frame each shot.
The Carson Universal connects smartphones to almost any optical device. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac Photo:
LAS VEGAS — Your iPhone captures great imagery, but sometimes the built-in zoom just isn’t enough. An ingenious gadget that quickly connects smartphones to almost any optical device gives your everyday camera superpowers.
The Carson Universal is an incredibly simple idea, but it delivers some pretty astonishing results. You can use it to connect your smartphone to telescopes, binoculars, microscopes, spotting scopes or almost any other optical device with a rounded eyepiece. Instead of buying a specialized, device-specific adapter, it’s a one-size-fits-all optical attachment.
“It kind of opens up the possibilities,” said Michelle Hyers, the engineer who designed the Carson Universal.
The App Store just keeps getting bigger. Photo: Apple Photo: Apple
We’re just one week into 2015, and already the App Store is setting new sales records. Apple today announced that during the first week of January alone, customers around the world spent almost half a billion dollars on apps and in-app purchases, with New Year’s Day 2015 the single biggest day in App Store sales history.
Oral-B's app takes some of the guesswork, and the tedium, out of brushing your teeth. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac Photo:
LAS VEGAS — Want to avoid gingivitis and tooth decay? There’s an app for that. More than one, actually, and they work with Bluetooth-equipped toothbrushes to help ensure you’re properly cleaning your choppers.
It was Philips that managed to beat, err, Beats to the first Lightning headphones last year, and at CES the company has taken it to the next level: announcing a new $299 pair that also offers noise cancellation.
Called the Fidelio NC1L, the battery-free headphones plug straight into iOS devices using the Lightning connector, and boast their own integrated 24-bit digital-to-analog converter rather than the one Apple builds into its devices.
A squirrel unknowingly looks like a Cyberman from the hit TV show Doctor Who. Photo by Chris Balcombe
You could say Emma Young is nuts about Doctor Who.
So much so, the craft maker and mother of two from Hampshire England made a squirrel feeder out of the head of a Cyberman, a villain on the popular British Sci-Fi television show.
The Cyberman head used to be a shower radio and Young gutted it, loaded it with peanut butter and nuts and suspended it from a tree branch in her garden.
The James Bond movies have given us plenty of memorable headquarters over the years — mostly belonging to supervillains. While the most famous one is probably Blofeld's hollowed-out volcano lair from You Once Live Twice, I’ve always been partial to Karl Stromberg’s underwater hideaway Atlantis, from Roger Moore’s best Bond entry, The Spy Who Loved Me.
Not only can the self-sufficient HQ rise to the ocean’s surface or dive below it to suit requirements, but it’s also got four helipads, plenty of luxury dining space, and a shark tank for getting rid of those pesky guests who overstay their welcome.
If you’re a long time Mac fan like I am, you probably remember a time in the 90’s when you would have paid anything to watch then Microsoft CEO eat shit and die.
Of course, since leaving Microsoft, Bill Gates has become quite the humanitarian… one who is especially concerned with the problem of getting clean drinking water to the rest of the world. So these days, I have no interest in seeing him eat shit and die.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, or the EFF, fights the good fight. An international non-profit digital rights group, the nonprofit is famous for standing up against big companies who think they can use baseless legal threats or intimidation to deny users their rights. But now they are setting their sights on Apple. Who is right?
Foxconn's relationship with Apple may be set to become even closer. Photo: Apple Photo: Apple
Foxconn’s new $2.6 billion factory dedicated to building displays exclusively for Apple will supply OLED panels for future iPhones and wearables, according to a report from leading Japanese newspaper Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun.
Long-time Apple manufacturer Foxconn is supposedly working with touch panel company InnoLux to put together an ecosystem, allowing it to produce sixth-gen low temperature poly-silicon films, aimed at entering mass production in 2016.
Do you live in the European Union? Canada? Norway? Russia? Bad news, friends. Your App Store prices are about to shoot up. But hey, if you live in Iceland, great news: your app prices are going down!
The competition needs to (Apple) Watch out! Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
The Apple Watch isn’t even out yet, and already it’s picking up some fairly high profile cheerleaders.
Not long after T-Mobile CEO John Legere jumped on the Apple Watch bandwagon by predicting the device will “mark the tipping point when wearables go from niche to mainstream,” MailOnline North American CEO Jon Steinberg has announced his Apple fandom, too — by viciously trashing the competition.