Step away from the light with Yosemite's dark mode, photo Buster Hein
OS X Yosemite is the biggest visual overhaul Apple’s made to the Mac in years, but developers at WWDC seemed most excited about one tiny UI tweak – dark mode.
Beta testers eager to try out the the new OS X 10.10 feature were disappointed to find out it didn’t make it into the first Yosemite beta, but our friend Jean-David Gadina, from the DiskAid developers team, has done some digging into the OS X Yosemite beta and discovered a new file not present in Mavericks that can be manipulated to enable the hidden dark mode feature.
Apple’s long awaited and heavily rumored iWatch is set to land in stores and on wrists this October, according to a new report from Japanese business newspaper Nikkei.
Unnamed sources tell the paper that Apple has begun finalizing specs for the device, which will feature a curved OLED touchscreen and run a version of iOS 8. In keeping with Apple’s push into fitness and health tracking, as seen through the announcement of its upcoming Health app and API for iOS 8, the device will allegedly use biometric sensors to collect health-related data such as calorie consumption, sleep activity, blood oxygen levels, and more.
A Twitter account claiming to be run by superstar Apple exec Craig Federighi has been tweeting and retweeting as if it’s run by Hair Force One himself during WWDC. It has amassed more than 14,000 followers in less than two weeks and looks legit at first glance, but don’t be fooled.
We’re pretty sure it’s a fake — and we’ve seen an email that appears to confirm our suspicions.
Eric is a Stormtrooper who escaped the exploding Death Star and wound up on Earth.
Now he wears jeans, enjoys lavender-scented bubble baths, drinks Johnnie Walker whisky and sings a song about his tomato allergy.
No longer a member of the Galactic Empire guard, Eric serves as muse to British photographer Darryll Jones, a self-described 39-year-old child who has turned his fondness for toys — especially Star Wars action figures — into a Force on Instagram.
“I have always loved toys,” said Jones, a food and lifestyle photographer who does work for the Tesco supermarket chain when he’s not taking pictures of toys. “I recall quite vividly setting up little dioramas in my room or in the garden and playing out the scenes in my mind, imagining that the little plastic figures could come alive.”
Although we’re living through something of a golden age for original iOS games (think Monument Valley and Leo’s Fortune), it’s also a great time for iPhone gamers because we’re seeing ports of so many classic games making their way into the App Store. The latest is Capcom’s tremendous 2008 video game Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, which has just been announced as being set to arrive on iOS in the near future.
Promising a near-exact replica of the PSP title, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite will nonetheless optimize the monster-slaying experience for touch controls, as well as offering support for MFi (Made for iPhone) gamepads and improved graphics. In addition there’s set to be an online multiplayer mode, which is a big part of the game’s appeal.
Since the airing of Apple’s iconic “1984” commercial to launch the Macintosh, tech companies have had a special relationship with the Super Bowl. Now Apple is one of several tech giants — including Google, Yahoo and Intel — which have chipped in $2 million each in cash and services to help offset taxpayer dollars involved with bringing the historic 50th Super Bowl to the San Francisco 49ers stadium in Santa Clara, California.
Carriers in Mexico are no longer allowed to make use of the word “iPhone,” according to a new report from the Mexican publication El Universal. The news outlet reports that the ruling comes from the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI)and is based on the fact that the phonetically identical sounding “iFone” trademark is already owned by a small call center in Mexico. The trademark has been held since 2003 — four years before Apple released its first generation iPhone.
While Apple was acquitted as being at fault in the case, due to the fact that it is not considered a telecommunication services provider, Mexican carriers did receive blame, on the basis that they do provide such services.
The impact of coronavirus in China could hurt Apple in 2021. Illustration: Cult of Mac
China is an important market for Apple, and while the company now has deals like the one with China Mobile that help distribute hardware in the country, that is only half the battle. According to new reports, Apple has recently been focusing on wooing Chinese appmakers to get them to develop for iOS.
“Two years ago there was no developer support in China,” Chinese developer Woody Wan told Bloomberg in a recent interview. “There’s been a significant improvement.”
According to the report, Apple has been taking various steps to win over Chinese app developers — including beefing up developer relations by allowing new apps to be approved in the country, opening up a new office in downtown Beijing where the China App Store is located, and building new Chinese-language-specific software to benefit developers. At WWDC this week, Apple held several sessions and social gatherings for programmers visiting from China.
Less than two months after reinventing the Hitman franchise with the superb puzzler Hitman GO,developers Square Enix Montreal have announced that they’re set to take another crack at a mobile version of Hitman with the upcoming Hitman: Sniper.
This game will take a more classic approach to the stealth-based murder-heavy series by being a game about sniping, similar to the 2012 console game Hitman: Sniper Challenge, which was tied into the release of Hitman: Absolution. Levels in Hitman: Sniper will reportedly feature multiple solutions, with leaderboards that will make the whole thing “massively competitive.”
Don't let this happen to you. Screengrab and photos: Joshua Smith/Cult of Mac
An overwhelming sense of eagerness overtook me after Apple showed off OS X Yosemite at WWDC. The redesigned interface and accompanying features, like a spruced-up Spotlight and the ability to take phone calls on your Mac, made downloading the beta version too intriguing to pass up.
Little did I know that moments after finalizing the installation, I would encounter a massive problem that would send me on an emotional ride.
The latest ad for Beats headphones prominently displays Apple products, which probably has something to do with the fact that Apple is spending $3 billion to buy Beats.
Clocking in at just over five minutes, you won’t see the ad on TV. It’s tailored for the upcoming World Cup, and Beats is not an official sponsor. Nevertheless, the ad is compelling and filled with celebrity cameos. Could this be the direction Apple is heading with its in-house advertising?
The 61st Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is honoring U2’s Bono with the first Cannes LionHeart Award for his achievements in the war on AIDS through (RED), a charity he created that has partnered with Apple for years.
Jony Ive will join Bono at Cannes Lions for a special interview moderated by Shane Smith, the CEO of VICE Media. The discussion with Bono and Ive will center around “the success of (RED) and it’s unique collaboration with global partners,” namely Apple.
Congress has dropped the ball on surveillance reform, according to Tim Cook and a host of other top tech CEOs throughout the country.
In a full-page ad printed in today’s Washington Times, the tech companies tell the Senate it’s been a year since revelations on the NSA’s over reach were made known to citizens, but Congress has failed to pass a version of the USA Freedom Act that would restore the confidence of internet users.
As a huge fan of Vertigo Comics’ Hellblazer, about hard-bitten wise-cracking paranormal detective John Constantine, I’m warily excited about the upcoming TV series on NBC. Wary because of the totally off-base movie of the same name. Excited because, well, it looks like they got a bunch of things about the character and universe in which he lives “right.”
“I think as with the source material,” says series lead Matt Ryan in an interview with IGN, “there’s so much to draw from in terms of the character and the balance of humor and wit and dark and gritty. It’s great, because John has this kind of real sarcastic, ironic British wit. It’s funny, but at the same time it’s serious and dark and gritty. It’s got it all, I think.”
At first glance, the trailer (below) looks like the show creators understand more of the character than the 2005 movie starring Keanu Reeves ever did, including emo angels, a world-weary John Constantine and his famous trench coat.
Apple legend Bill Atkinson, left, and Andrew Stone talk Steve Jobs, drugs and the Internet at AltConf 2014 in San Francisco. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
SAN FRANCISCO — At Apple’s WWDC developer conference, there are talks about interface design, writing code and fixing bugs.
Across the street at indie spinoff AltConf, the talks are concerned with spying on users and making choices between good and evil.
“We have had a hand in creating one of the most dystopian and undesirable societies imaginable,” said Andrew Stone, a veteran programmer who once worked with Steve Jobs, during a talk entitled “What Have We Built Here?”
It’s not the kind of stuff you’d expect to hear at a developer’s conference, but in an age of widespread government spying and cynicism about corporate slogans like “Don’t be evil,” AltConf highlights that programmers are often presented with moral choices. There’s a growing awareness in the coding community that although the activity of programming is benign, what’s created can be used for evil. Take Maciej Cegłowski’s talk last month in Germany, which has been widely discussed on the Web. Cegłowski argues — convincingly — that the utopian ideals of the early internet have been thoroughly corrupted, and the entire industry is “rotten.”
How many times have you allowed a friend to use your iPhone and then experienced that sudden sinking feeling when you realize they might stumble across “personal” snaps in the Photos app? Well, with iOS 8, that’s something you won’t need to worry about quite so much.
Apple has added a new feature to the built-in Photos app that allows you to hide images you don’t want others to see — but hidden photos aren’t exactly hard to find.
Never in its many incarnations has the Animal Man mythos been this fascinating.
Capullo’s art continues to shine. And make you scratch your head. And shine.
Never in its many incarnations has the Animal Man mythos been this fascinating.
Refreshing in its choices. Miles Morales is not Peter Parker.
Hickman is in pure form. A science-fiction Western? YES. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse running around and kicking semi-righteous ass? Also YES.
It keeps getting more bizarre and funny and Rob Guillory’s art continues to shine. Also, you can’t argue with a comic that continues to make up increasingly awesome food-related superpowers.
Arguably the best title in Robert Kirkman’s Skybound sub-label, this gem tells the “untold” tale of what Lewis & Clark REALLY found. Imaginative and nuts.
A worthy follow-up to Origin. A pre-Wolverine Logan is sooooo ANGRY. And sad. And tragic. There’s a spread in Issue #4 that made some of us go “NO!” AND “YES!” at the same time.
Cyclops is INTERESTING. #whatnoway
In the future, powerful families rule instead of governments or corporations. One genetically engineered member of the family kicks the asses of anyone the family decides needs it. Awesome.
It’s still hilarious. Like they say, it’s “The Hobbit meets The Hangover.”
We know this is more than 10, but we added this cuz she is bad ass. Period.
When we’re looking for comics in our local nerd den, we’re often overwhelmed by the quantity of new titles each week. That’s not even counting the back issues and collected series in trade paperback format.
So we asked some of the most alpha nerds we know: the folks at Industrial Toys, a game development team (Midnight Star) with a who’s-who pedigree in geek. There’s CEO Alex Seropian, the co-founder of Bungie games (Marathon, Halo), Tim Harris, part owner of Alley Cat Comics in Chicago, John Scalzi, best-selling science fiction author, and Mike Choi, a veteran comic book artist in his own right.
Harris and Seropian, along with art director Aaron Marroquin and senior graphic designer Sarah Chiappetta, chimed in to our request with the comic books that they think are the best in the bin.
If you’ve already heard enough about Swift, and are looking for another language to sink your learning-teeth into, how about taking up Dothraki?
The fictitious Game of Thrones language — as spoken by the late badass Khal Drogo and Daenerys Targaryen — is the basis of a forthcoming iOS app, and accompanying book, CD, and online learning course, set to arrive later this year. Costing $3.99, the app is described as “your Dothraki learning experience to go” and features 15 thematic flashcard decks with more than 200 Dothraki vocabulary words, a conversational dialogue, a pronunciation guide, a simplified grammar summary, and interactive games testing your vocabulary knowledge.
Apple’s new programming language Swift might be a hit with coders, but bringing it to developers wasn’t quite as speedy a process as its name implies.
Chris Lattner, director of Apple’s Developer Tools department, has updated his personal website with information relating to Swift — including some details of its development. According to Lattner, work on the language began back in July 2010. Lattner implemented much of the basic language structure himself, with only a few other people at Apple knowing of its existence. It was only when several other individuals began contributing to the project in 2011 that it started to gain momentum, leading to it becoming a major focus for the Apple Developer Tools group in July 2013.
One of the first things Steve Jobs did after returning to Apple in the late 90s was to bring back TBWA\Chiat\Day, the ad agency which had previously produced the memorable “1984” Macintosh commercial. The result was the famous “Think Different” campaign, which helped set Apple off on its present course. Now it seems that Apple is moving away from TBWA\Chiat\Day, toward producing more of its television ads in-house.
At WWDC, Apple debuted its new Family Sharing feature, which allows up to six members of a household to share calendars and even iTunes purchases when using the same credit card — meaning the end of multiple iTunes accounts for different family members.
While Family Sharing allows users to set up their family as a unit able to share photos, calendars, locations, etc. more significant to developers is that it lets users share songs, books, movies, apps, and other purchases.
In a new TV ad for the iPhone 5s, Apple shines a spotlight on some popular fitness trackers. Called “Strength,” the minute-long spot features the old song “Chicken Fat” from President Kennedy’s Physical Fitness Program for schools in the 1960s.
Trackers like the Withings Health Mate, Misfit Shine, and Adidas miCoach Smart Ball are shown in use. Apple just announced its new HealthKit framework for iOS 8 at WWDC, so developers will be able to start feeding Apple’s new Health app data from the kinds of wearables shown in the commercial.
Today a report said that Apple is starting to move its TV ad making in-house. The latest iPad ads featuring the voices of Robin Williams and Bryan Cranston were made internally by Apple, while iPhone spots like the one above are still being made by the ad agency TWBA\Chiat\Day.
The Rumor: Retina iMacs really are on the way soon, according to some info in Apple's new Xcode 6 program.
The Verdict: Looks promising. WWDC came and went without a single hardware announcement, meaning Apple has gone over 8 months without a significant new product. Based on code found in the Yosemite beta, it looks like we won't have to wait much longer for sharper iMacs to land on our desks, thanks to a file that lists scaled-up resolutions for such a display. The structure of the list is identical to resolution listings for the Retina MacBook Pro, making this rumor feel more like a sure-thing now.
If you’ve been holding out for a Retina iMac, the wait may be almost over.
First spotted in the latest Mountain Lion developer beta, code has now been uncovered in OS X Yosemite that references new resolutions for what would be a Retina display-equipped iMac.
Rumors of an Amazon smartphone have been circulating for a long time, but now it looks like the device will finally be shown to the world this month.
Amazon has announced a launch event for a “new device” on June 18th, and it’s probably a phone. Some kind of fancy 3D technology is rumored to be its main selling point, and Amazon has a teaser video that strongly suggest that will be the case.
The new Spotlight search in Yosemite (photo: Roberto Baldwin/ The Next Web)
Apple and Google aren’t the good friends they used to be thanks to the rise of Android as the iPhone’s main competitor. Ever since Apple axed Google Maps in iOS 6, it has been clear that Google’s days in Apple’s software are numbered.
The hardest Google service for Apple to replace is undoubtedly search. Siri is slowly becoming its own search engine of sorts that draws from multiple services like Wolfram Alpha and Wikipedia, but Google has remained the standard for traditional web search.
In iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, Google is still set as Safari’s default search engine. But with the introduction of more search partners in Apple’s new software, it’s hard to believe that Google search will enjoy its prominence for much longer.
