News - page 1306

Apple is continuing its push to diversify its leadership with the announcement this afternoon that Susan Wagner, a wall street insider who co-found one the world’s top investment firms, has been added to the company’s board of directors, taking the spot of the board’s longest serving member.

Bill Campbell has been on Apple’s board for 17 years but has decided to retire, making room for Wagner to take her seat on Tim Cook’s board. Wagner comes to the board after co-founding BlackRock in 1988 and leading it to become one of the world’s most successful asset-management companies. She’ll continue to serve on BlackRock’s board, as well as boards for Swiss Re, Wellesley College, and Hackley School.

In an press release announcing the changes, Tim Cook had high praises for Wagner, as well as the man she’s replacing:

Today Apple rolled out two-step verification for Apple ID accounts in 48 new countries. With the addition of countries like China, Japan, India, and France, two-step verification for Apple IDs is now supported in a total of 59 countries. Only 11 countries offered the extra security measure until today.

Lightning ports haven’t even been around for two years now, but I think it might be time for Apple to consider replacing it with the MacBook’s most underrated feature: Magsafe power connectors.

Cabin is a new a Kickstarter projected aimed at bringing the MacBook’s awesome MagSafe power connector to the iPhone 5 and 5s, with a battery case that’s so sleek and unapologetically aluminum, you’d think it came straight from Jony Ive’s prototype design lab.

Time tracking for clients can be a huge pain, but there’s a new iPhone app out called Hours to make the process easier.

“Three years ago we got so frustrated with time tracking software that we decided to do something about it,” said Jeremy Olson of Tapity, an Apple Design Award-winning studio behind apps like Languages and Grades. Hours features a simple, elegant interface with flexible options for keep track of when you work.

Facebook’s ‘make a bunch of apps and see which ones stick’ strategy for mobile has unleashed a new app for the iPhone this morning, and it’s supposed to make interacting with famous people on Mark Zuckerburg’s social network easier than ever, but you’re probably not cool enough to use it.

Apple’s new mothership isn’t expected to touchdown in Cupertino until 2016, but construction on the new campus is starting to hit a rapid pace, as new areal photos reveal the exterior walls are nearing completion as well as the construction of underground tunnels.

Are you bummed that don’t have anyone to sext with, or that the sexting has dried up in your relationship?

Don’t worry. Thanks to a new game, you can sext just as easily as picking up your iPhone and sending a text to a bot.

When you’re dealing with a genre as tired as the endless runner (no pun intended), it can be difficult to do something new. That’s not the case with Fotonica, an upcoming iOS title.

By switching the genre to a first-person perspective (you even see your arms pumping back and forth at the edges of the screen) and adopting sparse vector art, the dynamic game looks like the kind of title we might have dreamed of owning back in the 1980s.

Microsoft is going through some major turbulence. Today it has announced major layoffs, beginning with 13,000 positions to go immediately, with a total of 18,000 expecting to find themselves out of a job sometime during 2014.

The vast majority of these sackings involve the company’s Nokia division. Microsoft acquired Nokia’s Devices and Services unit back in September 2013 for $7.2 billion. Along with taking ownership of the Finnish firm’s entire smartphone lineup — giving it complete control over both hardware and software– the acquisition saw 25,000 Nokia employees join the Microsoft ranks.

The current Microsoft layoffs means that up to half of the Nokia people will probably leave the company, although it will also likely signal the end for some previous Microsoft employees to allow for incoming Nokia talent.

Back before the popular starship sim roguelike FTL had come to the iPad, France’s Mi Clos Studio released a charming little game called Out There that scratched a lot of the same itches. Like a randomized choose-your-own-adventure novel with resource management, Out There allowed you to explore alien universes, learn extraterrestrial languages, fight an evil alien civilization, and more.

Not everyone loved the game, saying that victory in Out There was too random, but I always had a lot of fondness for it. It had an incredible sense of atmosphere, thanks to wonderful art and music. I’m delighted to hear, then, that Out There isn’t just getting a sizable update… it’s clso oming to the Mac.

There’s a line in 1990’s The Godfather: Part III when Al Pacino’s Michael describes his inability to extract his family from a life of crime, saying: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”

Much the same could be said for Apple’s relationship with long-time chip supplier and bitter rival, Samsung. Having previously heard that Apple was handing the majority of the iPhone 6 chip orders to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC), a new report suggests that TMSMC is now likely to lose future orders (most likely for the next-next generation iPhone 6s) back to Samsung.

KGI Securities analyst Michael Liu claims that TSMC will be supplanted by Samsung in the production of 14-nanometre A-series smartphone chips for Apple and Qualcomm, beginning in the second half of 2015.

IBM and Apple’s new enterprise partnership is already being called one of the “most important and powerful tech partnerships ever.”

But outside of selling more iPads, iPhones and Macs in business, what else could Apple get out of the deal, which was announced Tuesday? According to a new report, Watson — IBM’s Jeopardy-winning A.I. capable of understanding natural language.

As the devices we likely use the most on any given day, it makes sense that our smartphones should be as personalized as possible: not necessarily in terms of the New York Knicks or Hello Kitty case we keep them in, but in terms of how much they understand us and can anticipate our behavior.

A new patent application published Thursday shows how Apple is experimenting with future iPhones and other mobile devices which can comb through the usage patterns on particular device and determine whether it is being used by its rightful owner.

For many users, the iPhone has long since been their default go-to camera, and that’s unlikely to change with the upcoming iPhone 6.

As many smartphone camera aficionados will know, Apple has been using Sony’s Exmor sensors for its cameras as far back as the iPhone 4s. Both the 4s and 5 used an Exmor IMX145 unit, while the 5s updated to a newer model.

According to a new report, the iPhone 6 is set to upgrade yet again: adopting the Sony Exmor IMX220, which boasts 13 MP and a 1/2.3″ sensor, and is capable of recording 1080p videos (3840 x 1080 resolution sampling.)

New leaked photos reportedly showing the battery from the long-awaited 4.7-inch iPhone 6 have emerged online, apparently depicting devices with a capacity of 1,810 mAh. Provided that these turn out to be genuine, this would represent a slight improvement versus the 1,560 mAh battery seen in the current generation iPhone 5s.

After launching first in Japan on July 15th, Apple has brought its iTunes Pass functionality to the United States. The feature allows you to store iTunes Store credit on a digital gift card in Passbook that can reloaded by an Apple retail employee in-store.

Here’s an explanation of how it works from Apple:

About a month ago, I said on Twitter that I was looking for a new podcast app to try. I’ve been a user of Instacast on iOS and OS X for a long time, but recently the app’s cloud sync has become too unreliable and glitchy.

I got a lot of suggestions, but ended up settling with Apple’s own Podcasts app. It didn’t address several things I wanted out of a podcast client, but it was the most reliable and easy to use option from what I came across.

And now, lo and behold, the most highly-anticipated new podcast app in a long time has come out. Today Marco Arment released Overcast, a simple and yet powerful podcast app for the iPhone. I’ve given it a test run, and although there is plenty of room for improvement, I’m pretty impressed.

The squads of the NFC and AFC are gearing up for training camp in just a few weeks, and the NFL is ready to make a killing by feeding your leather and spandex addiction with an NFL Sunday Ticket package that stream every game to your iPad, even if you don’t have a satellite subscription.

In a huge victory for cord-cutters, DirecTV is finally ready to loosen restriction to make it easier for non-subscribers to pay for the NFL Sunday Ticket, but it’s not going to be cheap.

Apple has added extra protection to iCloud’s outgoing email, making it harder for hackers, the NSA, or any other malicious spying groups to get their digits on your messages.

While the iPhone 6 has sparked tons of speculation in the tech world, rumors regarding the alleged Apple smartwatch have as well. All the gossip and leaks about the long-rumored device, popularly referred to as the “iWatch,” have created big expectations for the company to meet.

In today’s video we take a look at all the rumors and get a good feeling of what an iWatch might look like when it’s revealed (possibly this October). If the reports are true, you’ll enjoy more than the average smartwatch as you track blood pressure, hold FaceTime calls and more, all on an amazing device that redefines wrist wear.

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

Airbnb is poised to completely disrupt the hotel industry, and today’s rebranding of the startup makes it even more obvious.

Like Uber and TaskRabbit, Airbnb is all about using technology to make a seamless experience in the real world. You can look up a place to stay in the iPhone app, communicate with the owner, and book it without ever having to be put on hold or wait in line at a front desk.

With a redesigned interface focused on simplicity and discoverability, Airbnb is making it easier to find places to stay. But sadly all of that is being ignored because of how ridiculous that new logo looks.

You should be able to easily switch carriers in the U.S. once you fulfill your two-year contract, but most of the time it’s easier said than done. A new bill being reviewed in Washington plans to let you unlock your phone to take it to any carrier after your contact is over.

One year after being found guilty of e-book price fixing, Apple has reached a conditional settlement with the U.S. State to pay $450 million for its role in the price fixing conspiracy that involved five major publishers.

Apple’s settlement could bring $400 million back to consumers’ wallets, reports Reuters, but the court documents filed on Wednesday reveal that the company isn’t quite ready to throw in the towel yet, with hopes that its appeal will shrink that fee down to just $70 million.

Dropping cash on a new iPhone dock each time Apple decides to change the form factor can get pretty annoying, but if you’re down with rolling your own home brewed solution, you can actually create a sturdy dock for your iPhone 5s or iPod Touch using nothing but the LEGO blocks laying around your house.

We’ve seen a few LEGO docks over the years, but a YouTuber has created a simple step-by-step tutorial that teaches everyone how to build their out of three parts – a top segment, cable holder and a base. The dock in the video only uses black and white LEGOs for a sleek look, but we’d love to see it with a splash of color.

Watch the full tutorial below: