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An exclusive look at Alto’s Adventure, a beautiful endless runner for iOS

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Countless “endless runner” games have made it big in the App Store—all the way back to Canabalt in 2009. Now we have more titles like Tiny Wings and Badland that pride themselves on not only fun, causal gameplay, but immersive design.

The next game in the endless runner camp to make it big could very well be Alto’s Adventure, an upcoming title from Snowman, the small developer behind popular to-do app Checkmark. In an exclusive peek at the game’s artwork given to Cult of Mac, we’re shown the incredible design that’s going into bringing Alto’s Adventure to life.

Every vintage picture tells a story, don’t it?

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Courtesy of @savefamilyphotos
Courtesy of @savefamilyphotos

Rachel LaCour Niesen’s passion for vintage photos started when she walked down her grandmother’s wood-paneled hallway to look at a bedroom wall that held a carefully edited family history.

There she saw a photo of her father standing proud in his cap and gown on graduation day, an aunt sitting poolside during a swim meet and a happy couple cutting their wedding cake. The imprint those pictures left on LaCour Niesen lies at the heart of her @savefamilyphotos project on Instagram, where she curates a collective history. She invites people from around the world to send her a digital copy of a cherished family photo and brief story that, in many cases, gives the photo its emotional muscle.

“The treasure is not just the photo but the story that comes with it,” LaCour Niesen told Cult of Mac. “I believe stories are the currency of our past, present and future. Without them, we are bankrupt. Our family photos trigger those stories. They are like glue that holds my story — and our stories — together over time.”

Throwback Thursday, Facebook and Instagram have made personal blasts from the past a weekly — if not an hourly — ritual. The web is awash in fuzzy Polaroids, vintage Kodachromes and black-and-white snaps, uploaded by individuals with hard drives full of memories and shared by everyone.

How the iPhone Activation Lock hack works

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Find My iPhone app in the news.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

The recently revealed exploit that allows anyone to bypass the iPhone’s Activation Lock system is a rather simple process that requires adding just a single line of code to a computer running iTunes.

The exploit, which is called DoulCi (“iCloud” backward), has already been used thousands of times on locked iPhones and iPads around the world. It’s the work of a pair of anonymous hackers, who cracked Apple’s theft-deterrent measure by tricking lost or stolen iOS devices into thinking they are being reactivated by Apple’s servers.

How the iPhone 6 might compare to its predecessors

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While mockups of Apple’s eagerly awaited iPhone 6 have been popping up for a while now, it’s still pretty amazing to see just how far we’ve come since the first generation iPhone made it to our sweaty palms back in the good old days of 2007.

That comparison is made clearer in a new video put together by YouTube user DetroidBORG, which does a great job of comparing a dummy iPhone 6 handset with every previous model of iPhone that has come before.

Sin City sequel gets five new character posters

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When you’re dealing with a Robert Rodriguez/Frank Miller project, visuals are everything — which is why it’s great when they live up to expectations.

Following years of waiting, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is almost upon us, opening August 22. A perfect opportunity, then, to release five character posters, highlighting a combination of brand new characters and previous fan favorites.

And, man, do they ever look pretty!

Medium comes to iPad, and the best social reading app gets even better

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Outside of reading Cult of Mac (which you’re already doing!) Medium is one of the best go-to destinations of quality writing on the Internet. A blog publishing platform co-founded by ex-Twitter founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone, Medium is an effortlessly easy-to-use social journalism network that puts content — not ads — first. It’s like WordPress meets Instagram.

Medium already has a wonderful iPhone app, but sadly, universal support was missing at launch. But that’s all changed, and you can now surf Medium on your iPad as well.

Apple allows advertisers to create fullscreen iAds

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Apple has issued an update to its iAd producer tool — adding support for creating full-screen banner ads for iPhone, along with the ability to upload Producer project to iAd workbench.

iAD Producer version 4.2 additionally includes folder reorganisation in the tool’s Assets sidebar, alongside the expected unspecified bug fixes and performance tweaks.

Apple promotes personalized learning with new brain training app

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Apple’s been big on education under Tim Cook’s leadership — whether that be pushing for iPads in schools around the world, or teaching people to code in Apple Stores.

Apple’s latest Editors’ Choice in the App Store continues this educational theme, with a brain-training app called Elevate designed to help improve articulation, reading and listening focus, writing abilities, and information-processing speed.

Apple may be buying Beats to keep it out of Samsung’s hands

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Conventional wisdom is that while Beats has a lot of fashion credibility, the actual audio quality blows. So why does Apple want to buy them?

Rumors have swirled that it’s an acqui-hire, and that Apple wants Beats so that it can also own Beats executive Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, whose contacts in the music industry are unparalleled.

But there could be another reason, too. Apple might want to prevent Samsung from purchasing Beats.

How Steve Jobs taught everyone (even Apple’s engineers) to care about design

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Photo: Apple
Photo: Apple

It is often said that what separates Apple from companies like Samsung and Sony is that at Apple, design is law. Other companies put engineering first.

But that’s not true, according to former Apple senior designer and user experience evangelist Mark Kawano. Speaking to Fast Company’s design site, Co.Design, Kawano says that Apple is still an engineering first company.

The difference? Every engineer at Apple knows how to think like a designer.

See if your iPad charger is a fake before you burn down your house

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Can you spot the real iPad charger?

You probably don’t waste much thought on where to plug-in your iPhone, but not using a real Apple charger has its disadvantages. Not only are they higher quality, and safer, but they also charge faster than a 5W Chinese knockoff.

Millions of cheap Apple copycats make it difficult to tell whether a charger is the genuine article and have been blamed on everything from iPad explosions to spontaneous electrocutions, but thanks to a teardown comparison from Ken Shirriff there’s one little flaw to look for that gives the dangerous fakers away.

Just look for the signature.

Big Hero 6 trailer shows adorable Disney spin on Marvel comic

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When Disney bought Marvel Studios, they gained a huge backlog of intellectual properties and stories to mine. The Avengers and the various supporting live-action superhero flicks like Ironman and Thor were just the beginning, as we can see from this new trailer (below) for upcoming animated adventure, Big Hero 6, based on the comic of the same name.

Big Hero 6 [is] an action comedy adventure about brilliant robotics prodigy Hiro Hamada,” says the Disney press release, “who finds himself in the grips of a criminal plot that threatens to destroy the fast-paced, high-tech city of San Fransokyo. With the help of his closest companion – a robot named Baymax – Hiro joins forces with a reluctant team of first-time crime fighters on a mission to save their city.”

iMessage problems get worse thanks to server glitch

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Anyone who has ever tried jumping from iOS to Android, while keeping the same cell number, will know about the horror of trying to get hold of their messages.

The so-called “iMessage purgatory” means that unless you first deactivate your iMessages before ditching your iPhone, Apple’s servers will think that you’re using its proprietary messaging platform. The upshot? Say goodbye to your messages.

While the problem has been gaining more awareness recently as a result of class-action lawsuits filed against Apple, it’s just gotten worse, courtesy of a recent server glitch. The glitched rendered moot one of Apple’s key methods for sorting out the issue.

Stop everything! Go read these comics

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Photo: Image Comics
Photo: Image Comics

With some truly great titles out there, and apps like Comixology making them easier to read then ever, there’s never been a better time to be a comic fan.

But with so many choices, what exactly should you be reading? Particularly for comic newbies it can be a little daunting searching through mounds of comics, whether that’s in your local brick-and-mortar, or on the virtual comic rack. Luckily, reading comics is part of my job, so I was all too happy to scour the four-color archives for the cream of the current crop.

There are superheroes, flesh-eating zombies, and, err, time-stopping intercourse — all of them read just as well on paper or your iPad screen. Personally, I’m a stickler for physical books, although digital ones are looking better all the time, and they’re continuing to explode in popularity.

But ultimately how you choose to consume your comics is a personal choice. Just so long as you read ’em.

So get reading!

DJing gets even easier thanks to djay’s sync up with Spotify

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What if you had access to any song you wanted while you were DJing? “It’s like giving a chef infinite resources for ingredients,” explains Algoriddim co-founder and CEO Karim Morsy. Algoriddim’s popular djay app is getting a major update today that gives users the ability to mix and match millions of tracks on the iPhone and iPad.

Thanks to a partnership with Spotify, djay users can now play any of the streaming’s service’s 20 million songs. Some fancy audio matching technology also makes it incredibly easy to match and discover new tracks.

As streaming surges, record stores turn the indie knob up to 11

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Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Video might have killed the radio star, but streaming hasn't killed the record store. Photos: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Stroll into your local record store and you won’t find the dusty-floored wasteland of empty bins you might imagine. Chances are you’ll see something that’s more vibrant, relevant and vital than before.

Like the nerdy know-it-alls at specialty wine stores and comic book shops, today’s typical employee at an indie record store is still a tastemaking wizard — just turned up to 11. Staff picks bear the unerring zeal of the true believer, and staffers are more focused on uncovering stuff that you’ll never find on a Walmart CD shelf.

“Since there’s been a turn to Spotify, Bandcamp and iTunes, we sell way more vinyl,” said Jim Haynes, assistant manager at San Francisco’s Aquarius Records. “We’re at about 75 percent vinyl to 20 percent CD and a smattering of cassettes. People are turning to an even more seemingly obsolete medium.”

Predictions of the end of physical media are as played-out as those reports about the death of rock ‘n’ roll, with everyone and their mother proclaiming that Spotify and other streaming services have killed the local record store. That fear-mongering sounds smart and might even contain a kernel of truth, but the reality is much different.

This stunning iPad racer looks like a comic book brought to life

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Phrases like “it’s a comic book brought to life” are usually hyperbole, but that’s not the case for SXPD, a new iOS game which blends gorgeous black and white comic art with compelling gameplay.

Described by developer Little Chicken as “essentially the world’s first true game-comic book hybrid,” SXPD is a racing game interspersed with kinetic Comixology-like comic book interludes — upping the story-driven quota far beyond what we’re used to seeing in video games. In all there’s a 42-page digital comic book included, which is broken down into 6 chapters for you to play through.

Apple Stores will soon run on 100% renewable energy

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Apple's VP of Environmental Initiatives recently laid out the company's plans for its next eco-friendly moves.
Apple's VP of Environmental Initiatives recently laid out the company's plans for its next eco-friendly moves.

Hearing an Apple executive talk about their work in a relaxed setting is pretty unusual stuff, but that’s what happened earlier this week when Lisa Jackson, Apple’s VP of Environmental Initiatives, spoke as part of Fortune’s Brainstorm Green conference.

The 16-minute conversation, with Fortune Senior Editor (and former Apple author) Adam Lashinsky, touches on various topics related to Apple’s desire to go green — including some potentially revolutionary plans for its 400+ chain of retail stores.

Popular Nintendo war game Panzer Tactics invades iPad

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If you’re an iPad-owning fan of turn-based tactical games, you’ll be happy to know that popular Nintendo DS game Panzer Tactics DS has received an iPad remake.

Called Panzer Tactics HD, the game puts players in 1939 Europe and allows them to engage in three mission-extensive campaigns — creating tactics as part of the German Wehrmacht, the Soviet Red Army and the Western Allies.

Apple is busting at the seams as work on new campus picks up

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While construction of its new campus is underway, Apple is having trouble accommodating its workforce in the Cupertino, California area.

Apple is now leasing a 290,000-square-foot office complex in Sunnyvale, an area north of Cupertino and just east of Mountain View. Up to 1,450 employees could be moved into the space, reports the San Jose Mercury News. Since it will be years before its massive “Campus 2” is ready to be occupied, Apple continues to struggle not having enough space for its corporate workforce.

Apple too late to stop massive iCloud breach, hackers claim

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Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

An anonymous hacker who has exploited an iCloud security flaw that lets anyone unlock a lost or stolen iPhone says Apple contacted him about the matter today, but he deleted the email.

“They have asked me to contact [them] as quickly as possible, but why now?” the hacker, who goes by AquaXetine, said in an email to Cult of Mac. “I’ve already warned Apple couple months ago.” Cult of Mac confirmed that the email did in fact come from Apple.

The hack, which is the first of its kind, bypasses the iCloud security system for locked iOS devices called Activation Lock. By using the free DoulCi site, which appeared to be offline most of the day but is now back up, a locked iOS device can be tricked into thinking it’s talking to Apple’s iCloud servers when connected to a computer.