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North Korea’s OS X clone is now available to the public

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North Korea's new operating system looks suspiciously familiar. Photo: North Korea Tech
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.

Take a look at the similarities:

Apple joins ‘Je Suis Charlie’ solidarity movement after Paris terror attack

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Apple's French website has been updated with the
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.

How the iPhone enhances ReSound’s hip new hearing aids

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ReSound's LiNX hearing aid is the first controlled by the iPhone. Pairing with the iPhone adds a surprising amount of useful functionality. Photo: ReSound
ReSound's LiNX hearing aid pairs with iPhones to add surprisingly useful functionality. Photo: ReSound
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LAS VEGAS — Hearing aids aren’t sexy, so a lot of journalists here at International CES breezed right by ReSound’s booth.

Cult_of_Mac_CES_2015 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.

Apple’s new hire set to lead enterprise push like never before

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Gene testing, coming soon to an iPhone near you. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
The iPhone: coming soon to a business near you. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
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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.”

The only Apple Watch accessory at CES is an unfinished prototype

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Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
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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.

Cult_of_Mac_CES_2015

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 Siri light up your house

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iDevices' HomeKit-compatible Switch lets you control anything you plug into it using an iOS app. Photo: iDevices
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.

Cult_of_Mac_CES_2015 It’s name is simple too: Switch.

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.

iHealth Gateway makes it easier to monitor grandma’s diabetes

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Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
The iHealth Gateway blood-glucose monitor can make caregivers' jobs easier. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
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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.

Cult_of_Mac_CES_2015 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.

Play more than 2,000 ancient DOS games in your browser for free

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Travel carefully, friends. Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC)
Travel carefully, friends. Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC)

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.”

Ink and water mix beautifully, and these photos prove it

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Graphic artist and photographer Alberto Seveso mixed metal ink with water for this luminescent creation. Photo  by Alberto Seveso
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.

Hexo+ is the high-flying selfie drone of our dreams

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Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
The Hexo+ flies high for stunning aerial photography. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
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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.

Cult_of_Mac_CES_2015 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.

Give your iPhone superpowers with this ingenious optical attachment

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The Carson Universal connect smartphones to almost any optical device. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
The Carson Universal connects smartphones to almost any optical device. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
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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.

Cult_of_Mac_CES_2015 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.

App Store made a record $500 million on New Year’s Day

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The App Store just experienced its worst security breach ever.
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.

Bluetooth toothbrushes take the boredom out of brushing

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Toothbrush technology has come to your mobile. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Oral-B's app takes some of the guesswork, and the tedium, out of brushing your teeth. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
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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.

Cult_of_Mac_CES_2015 The app for Oral-B’s electric Bluetooth toothbrushes is designed to develop good brushing habits and keep your teeth healthy.

“We have a product that will work — if you use it,” Oral-B rep Kris Parlett told Cult of Mac during International CES.

Philips’ noise-canceling Lightning headphones don’t need batteries

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philips-nc1l-side

Photo: No noise, just signal. Photo: Philips

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.

Cult_of_Mac_CES_2015 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.

Doctor Who foe? No, just a squirrel trying to get a nut

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A squirrel unknowingly looks like a Cyberman from the hit TV show Doctor Who. Photo by Chris Balcombe
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.

9 secret lairs that are even cooler than Apple’s spaceship campus

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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.Photo: Eon Productions

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.

Photo: Eon Productions


Hey Apple fans! Watch Bill Gates drink a glass of poop water!

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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.

But drink shit and live? Sign me up!

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is fighting Apple over its new app

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The EFF is fighting Apple. Photo: EFF
The EFF is fighting Apple. Photo: EFF

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?

Apple’s next iPhones could have all-new OLED displays

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Foxconn
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.

CEO of most-visited news site says Apple Watch will flatten competition

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Apple Watch did some monster pre-orders in its first day on sale. Photo: Leander Kahney
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.

Check out his comments after the jump:

Patent troll threatens Apple with legal action over iCloud violation

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Apple wants patent trolls to stop ‘gaming the system’
The lesser-spotted patent troll. Photo: Andrew Becraft/Flickr CC
Photo: Andrew Becraft/Flickr CC

Imagine a lifetime job with Apple, that doesn’t require you going into the office every day, from which you can never be fired, but which still gives you a sizeable guaranteed paycheck at the end of each month.

If that sounds like a dream come true, apparently you share the same utopian vision as a little company called Hall Data Sync Technologies: a non-practicing patent troll company which just filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple.

Beijing police arrest thieves who dug tunnel into iPhone warehouse

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

Getting your hands on an iPhone 6 in China isn’t always easy. Finding a nearby Apple Store can be tough, and once you get there you must deal with the long lines and the hassle of shelling out cash to Apple. So a group of Chinese men came up with a different solution: They dug their way to the iPhone 6.

Beijing police said Wednesday that they’ve detained three men suspected of tunneling into a warehouse to steal 240 iPhone 6 handsets. The heist netted the thieves about $228,496 worth of devices but authorities still haven’t found a single stolen iPhone 6 unit, after the crew blew all their money on cars, gold and gambling.

You can already buy a fake Apple Watch for just $35

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Even a fake Apple Watch feels fashionable. Imagine what the real thing will be like. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Will the real Apple Watch please stand up? Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

LAS VEGAS — I got an Apple Watch today, and it only costs 35 bucks.

Cult_of_Mac_CES_2015 It doesn’t have a functional Digital Crown, apps or even a touchscreen. But it looks exactly like an Apple Watch, and in the land of Vegas, where appearance is everything, that’s all that matters.

“We took the Apple Watch and made a few tiny changes so Apple won’t get mad,” Oplus Tek‘s Lily Yin told Cult of Mac when asked about the inspiration behind its new timepiece.

HP Sprout is a fun Franken-puter with wild tricks up its sleeve

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HP's Sprout touchscreen computer scans objects and run them into 3D files. It's fast and fun. Credit: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
HP's Sprout touchscreen computer scans objects and turns them into 3-D files. It's fast and fun. Credit: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

LAS VEGAS — Of all the amazing technology on show here at International CES, the most surprising so far is Hewlett-Packard’s weird Sprout, a multitalented Franken-puter that looks like a ton of fun.

Cult_of_Mac_CES_2015 The HP Sprout is a touchscreen computer married to a multitouch pad, with a projector/camera/3-D scanner peering overhead. It looks like a bad prop from a Lego version of War of the Worlds.

I’d seen the press releases when it launched last October and had pretty low expectations. It just looked too weird. But I was genuinely delighted to see it in action.