News - page 1247

2014 was an absolutely monumental year for Apple. Haters will hate, but one thing can’t be denied: This is a company that refuses to rest on its laurels.

Under Tim Cook’s leadership, Apple debuted a new product category with the Apple Watch, sold a record number of new iPhones, made the biggest acquisition in its history, and successfully sent its suffering stock price back into the stratosphere.

The company wasn’t without its missteps, but all in all, it’s hard to call 2014 anything short of a blow-away year for Apple.

Happy holidays everyone, however you celebrate it: Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, kickin’ Kwanzaa and a tipsy New Year!

We trust you’re in the company of family and friends, stuffing your faces and giving and receiving in the best spirit of the holidays.

Whether you head to a theater or stream it in the comfort of your home, you really ought to watch The Interview this weekend.

The action-comedy, about two journalists on a mission to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, has become the unlikely must-see movie of the Christmas break — and it’s your patriotic duty to see it, like it or not.

The Interview has been made available for streaming and purchase online ahead of its theatrical release Christmas Day. YouTube Movies, Google Play, Xbox Videos, and a dedicated website are all offering the controversial comedy for $5.99 to rent and $14.99 to own in HD.

Notably absent from the list of streaming providers is Apple, which refused the chance to make the movie available through iTunes. But that doesn’t mean you can’t stream “James Flacco” and Seth Rogen’s North Korean escapades on your Apple TV or iOS device.

There are plenty of festive apps out there, but one of the quirkiest and most fun is the NORAD Tracks Santa app, which lets you keep real time tabs on Jolly Old Saint Nick as he carries out his gift-dispensing journey around the globe.

As one of the foremost authorities on tracking man-made objects in space, the North American Aerospace Defense Command has been tracking Santa’s progress for many years now. For those who don’t want to use the app, its possible to visit the Santa Tracker website, or check out the updates on Twitter.

Foxconn might get in on Apple’s sapphire business for future iPhones, according to a source speaking with Cult of Mac.

While Foxconn has no actual experience growing sapphire, it is reportedly very interested in the material, and has been actively pursuing various sapphire related patents over the past several years.

Foxconn’s array of sapphire patents include LCD displays with sapphire, protective sapphire covers, methods of sapphire growth, as well as a laser process to cut sapphire substrates to eliminate the need for grinding and polishing.

From perfect superhero books to quirky indie hits, the comics scene circa 2014 is about as varied as it’s ever been.

If you’re looking for some four-color reading recommendations over the holidays, look no further than Cult of Mac’s list showcasing the year’s finest comics. Whether it’s DC’s best-ever take on Batgirl, or Bryan Lee O’Malley’s eagerly awaited follow-up to the superb Scott Pilgrim series, there truly is something for everybody.

It’s December 24th, and there’s no sign of Apple’s annual iTunes 12 Days Of Gifts. We’re calling it: it’s not happening this year. But why not?

Apple turned down the opportunity to distribute the controversial movie The Interview on iTunes, despite a plea from Sony to the White House aimed at getting Cupertino on board.

Sony hoped Apple would step up as its sole “technology partner” to distribute the film, according to The New York Times.

Well, that didn’t last long: Floppy Cloud, the NES and SNES emulator for iOS we wrote about yesterday, has been pulled from the App Store.

When it comes to Asia, Apple’s increasing foothold in China has been the big Cupertino-related story of the year. However, mainland China’s far from the only Asian country that’s big into Apple devices.

According to a new report published today, Apple stormed the smartphone market in Taiwan for the month of November, capturing a 24.6 percent share in sales volume, and a massive 48.9 percent in sales value.

Of the 10 top-selling phone models sold in Taiwan last month, different configurations of the iPhone 6 represented four of them, with the most popular models being the 64GB iPhone 6 Plus, the 64GB iPhone 6, and the 16GB variants of both devices.

If your idea of high comedy is waggling your hind parts at people with a smarmy smirk, Jib Jab’s new funny video is right up your, well, alley.

“2014, You Are History” is a celebrity character-filled musical video in which the biggest names of the year sing a parody song set to the melody of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.

Watch the video below and remind yourself of this silly year, including ice bucket challenges, hacked celebrity nudes and Kim Kardashian’s shiny hindquarters.

Features like Handoff demonstrate just how useful it is to be able to chop and change tasks between different Apple devices, perhaps starting an email on your iPad and continuing it on your Mac.

A similar thing may soon be possible with your Apple TV, as a patent published today shows how Apple has invented a way of carrying out a sort-of reverse AirPlay: sending content from your Apple TV to your iOS device, rather than the other way around.

The big advantage of the concept is that it would allow remote viewing of Apple TV, whether this means having a TV show follow you from room-to-room, or tuning into your Apple TV while you’re away from home.

Tim Cook has been named “CEO of the year” by CNN Money, beating other contenders including T-Mobile’s John Legere, BlackBerry’s John Chen, other singled out as leading executives for 2014.

CNN Money notes that Cook performed an “amazing job,” and points readers toward the fact that the AAPL stock price is up 40 percent, while Apple hit new all-time high valuation levels.

This is credited to the launch of the iPhone 6, the debut of Apple Pay, and excitement about the Apple Watch, which is set to be the first major new product line launched at Apple under Tim Cook’s stewardship.

Facebook has just released yet another in its seeming interminable series of single serving apps of dubious utility. It’s called Stickers for Messenger, and surprise! It lets you slap virtual stickers on your photos before sending them to your friends through Messenger.

Every once and a while, someone slips a cool emulator past Apple’s App Store guardians in the guise of a seemingly inoffensive app. Well, just in time for Christmas, it’s happened again! Meet Floppy Cloud, an app by developer Kyle Hankinson that is actually a Nintendo and Super Nintendo emulator in disguise.

We’re nearly a week away from ringing in the new year and all the craziness that 2015 is going to bring with it, but before we go into holiday hibernation mode, we wanted to take a look back at the most GIF-worthy events of 2014.

From Ellen’s hilarious Oscar selfie, to ‘the greatest catch ever’, 2014 was filled with incredible moments that captured the Internet’s fascination thanks to the glory of the GIFs.

Without further adieu, these were our favorite GIFs of 2014:

There’s a line of thought which suggests that Apple’s CarPlay technology essentially turns your car into one giant iPhone add-on. A new trademark application, however, suggests that Apple is planning to lend its approval to some other, likely smaller third-party CarPlay accessories — coming soon to a vehicle near you.

Similar to the “Works With iPhone” developer program for accessories designed to connect specifically with the iPhone, Apple’s “Works with CarPlay” trademark will certify that a particular third-party product has been approved as meeting Apple’s performance standards for its in-car iOS interface.

Apple pushed out a critical security update for Mac users today, and if your Mac is running Yosemite, Mavericks, or Mountain Lion, you’ll want to install it immediately.

OS X NTP Security Update was released to users via the Mac App Store today and fixes a critical security issue with the software that provides the Network Time Protocol service on OS X.

The first wave of Apple Watch apps will probably be pretty limited in functionality, but even with the WatchKit restrictions Apple has in place, the design gurus at JBS Labs have created an Instagram for Apple Watch concept that we can’t wait get on our wrists.

The Hungary-based design firm pared down the Instagram UI to just the bare essentials. No, you can’t upload pictures or comment on your friends’ latte photos, but the simplified app does let you view and like pictures, as well as read comments and find new people to follow.

Check it out:

Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak made his first big step toward becoming an official citizen of Australia this week when he was granted ‘permanent resident’ status for being a distinguished person

Woz is currently teaching as an adjunct professor at the University of Technology in Sydney and says he plans to become full fledged citizen and buy a house in Sydney.

There’s nothing better than a snowball fight, unless its a snowball fight you can watch from the comfort of your couch and Macbook Pro.

Even better is a snowball (or two!) in the face of a bunch of adorable hipsters from Exit 10, a design studio in Baltimore that put together this ultra-slow-mo snowball massacre for you to enjoy.

Apple is ramping up its social media efforts today with the creation of the company’s first ever Tumblr page dedicated to the top iTunes picks for music, movies, TV shows and books in 2014.

With iTunes sales slumping for the second straight year, Apple is adding more ‘social’ to its marketing plan with a Tumblr page that allows viewers to like and share their favorite GIFS, pictures and videos that Apple created to promote its favorite artists of 2014.

Apple has re-opened its online store in Russia after temporarily closing it last week following “extreme” fluctuations in the valuation of the country’s currency, the ruble.

But while that’s good news for people wanting to order Apple goods over the holidays, it’s not likely to go over well with the majority of customers — since prices have dramatically increased.

The cost of an iPhone 6, for instance, has risen 35 percent: with a 16GB iPhone 6 selling for 34,990 rubles before the shutdown, and 53,990 rubles now. That means a base level iPhone costs $980 in Russia.

One of the best features launched with OS X Yosemite this year was the ability to make and receive phone calls from your Mac, provided it is paired with a compatible iPhone.

But while it’s usually great receiving phone calls with the feature, making outgoing calls yourself is not so straightforward: You must launch the FaceTime app, turn on your webcam and then maneuver through an interface that’s clearly more complex than it needs to be.

Thankfully, this is where DockPhone app comes to the rescue. If you use your Mac to makes calls with any regularity whatsoever, consider this an early Christmas present to yourself.