News - page 1301

Sporting a larger screen size, case redesign and various under-the-hood improvements, the iPhone 6 is widely expected to be the biggest refresh of Apple’s smartphone in years. That anticipation is having a major knock-on effect with Apple’s component makers, too.

We reported last month that Apple has placed an unprecedented number of orders for the iPhone 6, and that seems to be backed up by recently announced July sales for Taiwan-based Apple casing supplier Catcher Technology.

Based on growth in the Apple-driven smartphone sector, the company had its second best month in history, with monthly earnings of $154.6 million. This marks a whopping 36.8 percent increase compared to the same month in 2013.

Everyone wants to make a mint in the App Store. But while some developers slave away in coding dens on original ideas, others see a get-rich-quick shortcut through copying.

The result is an App Store littered with clones, frustrated devs, and Apple stuck playing a never-ending game of whack-a-mole to police the rip-off apps.

Recently the developers of micro-messaging service Yo — this year’s most unlikely App Store success story — were shocked to discover that another eerily-similar app called Yolo was hoovering up its potential downloads.

“I noticed a clone that was an exact replica, including the exact same UI, same App Store screenshots, and same App Store description copied word-for-word,” Yo creator Or Arbel tells Cult of Mac.

Sometimes a video game movie spinoff comes along that is so left field that you you a) check to see that it’s not April Fool’s Day and b) makes you wonder if the developers have actually seen the film in question.

Joining 2004’s Fight Club video game, which turned the epic David Fincher mindf*ck movie into a straightforward beat-em-up, is a new Forrest Gump iOS game, which mutates the beloved Oscar-winning comedy-drama into an endless runner. Yes, really.

Called Run Forrest Run, the game “celebrates” the twentieth anniversary of the movie by stripping it of whatever complexity it had, and transforming it into a game in which Tom Hanks’ simpleton character runs into traffic and collects coins like a “stupid is as stupid does” Super Mario impersonator.

An exhibit full of tortoises with iPads glued to their shells. Is this the next evolutionary stage of the family testudinidae? Hardly. It’s an art exhibit in Colorado’s Aspen Art Museum that has animal activists hopping mad.

Apple has dropped a new version of its iTunes app, solving a continuing problem for podcast listeners where subscribed podcasts stop updating with new episodes.

The iTunes version 11.3.1 refresh also fixes another podcast related issue, which saw iTunes become unresponsive while browsing through different podcast episodes.

Yesterday we wrote about the exciting news that Ace Attorney 5 (known outside Japan as Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies) had landed in the Japanese App Store.

Although it came with no official announcement of an English language release, we noted that we remained hopeful — particularly since the game had already received such a translation for a Nintendo 3DS version in 2013, which went on to be heavily praised by various outlets.

Well,  developers Capcom didn’t keep us in suspense for very long, since already the company has confirmed that English-language audiences can expect to play a version of the hit game “quite soon.”

A new set of leaked iPhone 6 photos from luxury iPhone upgraders Feld & Volk reveal that Apple’s next handset may come with recessed volume buttons, a protruding camera lens, and an embeddable Apple logo that might be made of Liquidmetal.

The iPhone 6 is expected to be unveiled next month, but a plethora of leaks flooding out of Shenzhen have already given fanboys an idea what to expect, and these new photos add a few more pieces to the puzzle with details on how Apple will slim the profile of the device and make your shiny Apple logo scratch-resistant.

Take a look at the allegedly leaked parts below:

We all enjoy stuffing our iOS devices with enough movies, music, photos, and other content to keep your iPhone entertainment system pumping for decades, but overtime your device can get too full.

New games, songs and even an iOS update can put users in quite the dilemma about where to trim some gigs of fat. Luckily when not wanting to part ways with your favorite iOS content there’s other convenient ways to free up more storage space.

Today’s video takes a look at 5 tidying tips that can free up more storage on your iOS device for when you need it most. Uncover how to manage your storage, address the dreaded “other” space on your device and find even more by simply using these tips.

Subscribe to Cult of Mac TV on YouTube to catch all our latest videos.

Apple added a new Beats by Dre section to its online store that makes it quicker than ever for shoppers to locate Tim Cook’s new favorite headphone brand among the mountain of iPhone and iPad accessories.

Apple dropped a slew of new beta releases earlier this week for iOS 8, Yosemite and Apple TV, but the company is also patching up Mavericks with the second beta build of OS X Mavericks 10.9.5.

Football madness kicks off in four more weeks and to satisfy your hunger for everything related to the gridiron, the NFL just launched its new NFL Now app for iPhone and iPad, that brings a deluge of video content for your favorite teams, all for free.

NFL Now includes highlights, interviews, Hard Knocks, and decades of old games from NFL Films. Best of all, the app is highly personalized based on your favorite teams and players that you pick when you first log in to the app.

In four years, Instagram has gone from having one million to over 150 million users. The app’s reach as a platform for sharing photos is incredible, but for many, the value of what’s posted maxes out at a number of likes.

Many photographers with tens or even hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram have little-to-no prior professional experience. Yet they’ve managed to gather huge followings around the photos they take and share from their smartphones.

“My God, these guys have no idea how talented they are,” Chad Newell remembers saying to himself during Instagram’s early days. “We could sell this stuff.”

The lack of commercial opportunity for a new class of mobile photographers led Newell, a veteran of the stock image industry, to create a startup for buying and selling photography called Snapwire. Think of it like 99designs and 500px combined with Shutterstock.

While still in its early days, Snapwire is already drawing big-name advertisers to its growing of library premium stock photography. And it’s filling that library with the kinds of shots you would normally see in your Instagram feed.

Godus, the much-anticipated video game from god-game specialist designer Peter Molyneux and 22cans, is available now for iOS devices. Godus will let you play as your own private deity, letting you create and nurture a little island paradise on your iPad, iPod touch, or iPhone.

You’ll get to carve out landscapes with the touch of a finger, placing mountains, rivers, and flora wherever you like. You’ll also have the care and feeding of devout, worshipful followers of your very own.

“In Godus your hands will sculpt the mountains and carve rivers,” said Molyneux in a statement. “Your touch will create pastures for your people. You will be loved by tiny worshipers that need your help to grow and your direction to progress through the ages of civilization.”

Let’s face it. None of us are all that jazzed about having to plug our iPhones into the wall to charge them. We’re all yearning for the days in which wireless charging comes to the iPhone, iPad, and even Mac.

And when it does, furniture like this simple side table are going to become our de facto chargers.

It seems like a strange thing, but people who write about iOS apps on the web are often ashamed of their status bars. When they post screenshots of an app, they feel embarrassed by the fact that they don’t have a full signal from their cellular carrier, or a clear connection to WiFi, or 100% battery life. It’s an expression of the pursuit of perfection that marks Apple and its fans as a whole.

You wouldn’t think this is a pathology that Apple would really care about. But apparently, it does. And in OS X Yosemite and iOS 8, they’ve figured out a way to fix it.

Kicking off June 2, this year’s WWDC was the most eventful Apple developer’s conference in years, bringing us massive refreshes for both iOS and OS X.

But the blogosphere is nothing if not forward-looking, and already people are talking about what next year’s event will hold. While we may not have an answer for that just yet, there may be a few clues as to when it will take place, courtesy of the Moscone Center’s calendar of upcoming events.

Originally released exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS in 2013, Capcom has dropped the fifth instalment of its superb Ace Attorney series into the Japanese App Store, seemingly without any warning.

The game (which was heavily praised upon its release) follows the story of attorney Phoenix Wright who returns to action after his premature retirement in the game’s previous instalment, set one year earlier. Going up against former death-row-convict-cum-prosecutor Simon Blackquill, Wright is able to draw on the help of fellow legal eagles Apollo Justice and Athena Cykes.

The game features five cases, with a sixth one downloadable via in-app-purchase. Other IAPs allow users to add extra costumes or access a special mini-quiz.

We think we know a lot about the iPhone 6. How big the display is (4.7-inches and 5.5-inches). How thin it will be (really thin).What kind of processor it will be packing (an A8). And when it will be unveiled (September 9th). But do we know everything?

VentureBeat doesn’t think so. The well-respected publication says that a well-informed source has confirmed to them that in addition to all of the above, the iPhone 6 will feature 802.11ac Wi-Fi, NFC capabilities, a non-sapphire screen, and a 2.0GHz A8 processor.

I use OS X’s Dictation feature all the time while I’m working, but a new patent application published Thursday suggests that Apple’s looking to go much further when it comes to having users talk to their Macs.

The Intelligent Digital Assistant In A Virtual Environment application was filed February 4 this year, and describes a Mac-based Siri every bit as smart as its mobile iOS counterpart.

The patent application depicts a future OS X dock featuring an icon for Siri, which could be available to use for dictation or commands from inside various different programs.

The Apple Store on New York’s Fifth Ave has become nearly as iconic as the other shiny glass and aluminum beauties it sells, and now Microsoft is ready to take on Apple in the Big Apple with a Fifth Ave store of its very own.

Microsoft is in negotiations to open its first ever NYC store on Fifth Ave, reports the Daily News, which says the new shop will go up a mere six blocks away from Apple’s famous store.

Each second wasted during a 911 call could be the difference between life and death, making precise location data crucial to the whole lifesaving process, but according to the top U.S. cellphone carriers, getting that exact location to responders is just a little too expensive on 911 calls from a smartphone.

AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint are fighting back on an FCC proposal that aims to save lives by making it easier to locate 911 callers. The government proposal calls on carriers to upgrade their networks so that tracking callers indoor is easier, but AT&T says the project would be a waste of scarce resources.

Services like Lyft and Uber made summoning a ride with your iPhone a reality, and now they’re going to make sharing that ride even easier.

Both startups have announced new features that will make rides cheaper, providing that you’re willing to share a car with total strangers.

Foursquare pioneered the location check-in phenomenon that Facebook and so many others now offer. But the reality is that Foursquare just hasn’t been that popular for quite a while. It put out a flashy new check-in app called Swarm earlier this year, and that failed to catch on.

Now the main Foursquare app has received its most significant overhaul to date. Available today in the App Store, Foursquare 8.0 does away with a lot of the social aspects it had before and instead focuses on finding you just the best places to eat.