News - page 1345

Cult of Mac Magazine May 19 Edition

Every week, we serve up the best of the Cult of Mac website as a magazine so you can download and read it at your leisure on your iPhone or iPad.

Apple’s iconic Fifth Avenue retail store might be turning eight today, but the company is looking to boost its New York presence with a new store on the city’s Upper East Side.

City building permits, dated May 15, detail soil testing at the new site, along with the demolition of the building’s current interior — costing a total of $80,000. The new Apple Store is set to be located at no. 940 Madison Avenue, a limestone and marble building currency occupied by luxury retailer VBH.

It takes a lot to be both New York City’s most photographed landmark and Apple’s most beautiful retail store. It’s rare that a shop can genuinely be said to take your breath away, but in the case of the Fifth Avenue Apple Store, it lives up to its reputation — and then some.

A big glass box with a glass elevator in the middle, as well as a see-through staircase, complete with wrap-around glass banister, it’s a little bit like Apple’s long-forgotten (but spectacular) Power Mac G4 Cube — only so big that you can shop in it.

It grosses more than any other store in New York City. And it makes more money per square foot than any other store in the world. exactly eight years after it opened its doors, Apple’s flagship retail store has become an iconic part of the New York landscape.

And like a lot of the best Apple products, it owes its success to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

Unfortunately iOS 7.1 brought an end to the versatile Evasi0n jailbreak,which let anyone using iOS 7 to iOS 7.0.6 run unsigned code on their iOS device.

But no-one thought that would be it forever when it came to jailbreaks, and this weekend two prominent hackers posted evidence of iOS 7.1.1 jailbreaks online.

Mailbox, the popular gesture-based email app owned by Dropbox, has received a small but significant update.

First up are bug fixes, which (among other things) sort out the frustrating problems that have plagued the “reply” and “forward” features of the app’s iPad edition.

More importantly, however, is the app’s integration with App Links, the free and open-source initiative introduced by Facebook last month, that allows quick and straightforward linking between apps.

AT&T has confirmed that it is going to acquire satellite television operator DirecTV for $48.5 billion.

With a customer base of more than 35 million subscribers (as of December 2012), DirecTV is the second-largest pay TV provider in the United States. AT&T notes that the move will create “a unique new competitor with unprecedented capabilities in mobility, video, and broadband services.”

Facebook vs. Snapchat: round 2… fight!

After turning down a $3 billion acquisition offer late last year, Facebook is reportedly working on out-Snapchatting Snapchat with a new video messaging app, referred to internally as “Slingshot.”

The service — which lets user send short messages to one another with just a few taps — could be launched as early as this month, although as of yet Facebook has not signed off on it.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has written an open letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) concerning the subject of Net Neutrality.

In it, Wozniak runs down his history with telecom and details the various headaches he’s dealt with as a result of monopoly companies and government policies. With several examples, Woz points out how innovation and experimentation will be stifled if new rules concerning net neutrality are passed into law.

Okay, so a teaser trailer for a trailer is kind of the Hollywood version of Tim Cook assuring us that there are exciting products in the works, without giving any details, but this is pretty cool nonetheless.

If you’re a fan of the Marvel movies (and what comic geek isn’t?) you’re probably pretty excited about Guardians of the Galaxy — and the sneak preview below certainly doesn’t do anything to change that.

Apple might not feel the pressure to rush when it comes to releasing new product lines like the iWatch, but it sure can rush when it needs to.

Yesterday we reported on a glitch that saw people’s /Users and /Users/Shared folders disappearing if they had updated to iTunes 11.2 and had Find My Mac enabled. While we offered a couple of workarounds to the problem, Apple sprung into action to create a more permanent solution, which takes the form of iTunes version 11.2.1.

The update will ensure that your folder returns, and stay there even after you reboot. Recommended for all Macs, you’ll find it on the Mac App Store or under Software Update in your Apple Menu.

Definitely beats Terminal commands and an AppleScript hack!

Source: Apple

If you’re an iOS gamer, chances are you’re fed up of games loaded to the gunwales with in-app purchases. The so-called “freemium” trend for games is annoying for two main reasons: One, in many cases it makes games virtually unplayable if you won’t shell out the extra cash for IAPs. Two, it’s misleading because the games aren’t really “free” at all, any more than you could say that it’s free to go to the theater, but you have to pay cash if you want to actually watch a movie.

It’s this second point that antitrust authorities in Italy are taken issue with, under the heading of unfair commercial practices. They’re investigating Apple, Google and Amazon, alongside French game developer Gameloft, for allegedly misleading customers by advertising mobile game apps as free, when they actually require purchases in order to be played beyond a certain point.

If the reports ring true, Apple is about to embark on their largest acquisition ever, and the ramifications could be massive. On this episode of The CultCast, we dissect the Apple/Beats merger, and ask the questions: what could Apple possibly have planned for the world’s most popular headphone brand? Is new wearable headphone tech a part of Apple’s future? And most importantly, could the Doctor D-R-E be Apple’s next CEO? Strap on ya gats, ya’ll…

Have a few chuckles whilst we catch you up on each week’s best Apple stories! Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the audio adventure begin!

And thanks to Lynda.com for sponsoring this episode! Learn at your own pace from expert-taught video tutorials at Lynda.com.

Click on for the show notes.

Fresh photographic equipment stole the show this week, but we also got wind of some great new outdoor gear (and some stuff for desk jockeys).

First the camera news: Sony is coming on strong with the amazing R100 III camera, while Nikon’s most exciting new gadget is an underwater flash. On the outdoorsy front, San Francisco is gearing up for summer with new bags from my favorite bag makers Rickshaw and Waterfield, and if you’re out in the warm/cold spring on your bike, you might like to do it wearing the beautiful Vulpine merino wool cycling jersey. If you’re not the outdoors type, we have you covered too — you can stay home and organize your desk with a handsome wooden pen and phone holder.

Have fun!

We get slammed 24/7 with new Apple rumors. Some are accurate, most are not. To give you a clue about what’s really coming out of Cupertino in the future, we’re busting out our rumor debunker each week to blow up the nonsense.

As another week passes your host Joshua Smith is here to give you a wrap-up on some of the latest and biggest news features. The return of cassettes, iPhone 6 release dates and Flappy Bird 2 are among just some of the featured stories in today’s rundown. Take a look at the video and be sure to return next week for another.

Subscribe to CultOfMacTV on youtube.com to catch new episodes of the roundup and other great video reviews, how-to’s and more.

From 1993 until 1997, Apple’s rainbow logo smiled down from the east-facing side of Infinite Loop’s Building 3 as drivers sped north on Highway 280.

Now these Styrofoam and fiberglass signs are treated like fine art being peddled by one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious auctioneers.

Two rainbow Apple logos from the company’s original offices will be put up for auction next month at Bonhams and even though they come with some wear and tear, these Apple logos will cost you more than all your previous Apple purchases combined.

Apple and Google are bringing out the white flags. A landmark decision has been reached between the two Silicon Valley giants to drop their patent lawsuits against each other, specifically with regards to Google’s Motorola Mobility.

Google has bought Quest Visual, the company behind the popular Word Lens translation app.

Apple’s most recent iPhone 5s ad featured Word Lens, and rightfully so; it’s one of the most magical tools you’ll ever use on a smartphone. The app works by instantly translating text in different languages seen through the iPhone’s camera. It’s an astounding piece of technology, and it will now be incorporated into Google Translate.

The good news is that now is the best time to download Word Lens, because its creators have made all of its language packs free for a limited time.

Beats Electronics’ co-founders are preparing to dive headfirst into a pool of cool Apple cash but before Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre collect their check from Cupertino, a former employee is already preparing to sue Beats for upwards of $20 million.

David Hyman, co-founder of the music subscription service MOG, has filed a lawsuit against Beats claiming he was hired and then deliberately fired before he could cash in on the equity grant he was promised.

The majority of people who upgraded to OS X 10.9.3 yesterday noticed what seemed to be a strange glitch, in the form of their /Users and /Users/Shared folders disappearing. In fact, the fault doesn’t have to do with 10.9.3 at all, but rather occurs if you’ve updated to iTunes 11.2 and also have Find My Mac enabled.

Fortunately, there’s a workaround.

A former iPhone owner is suing Apple in San Jose court over Apple’s Message app not delivering texts to Android phones. The issue has plagued iMessage since its inception, but it is just recently starting to get attention.

This video by game video YouTube user NicksplosionFX is perhaps the most awesome thing you’re going to see all day.

It’s a shot by shot recreation of the stunningly fantastic Game of Thrones television show introduction sequence done in the style of Nintendo’s classic Super Mario Brothers video game.

Whether your a Game of Thrones fan, a classic Nintendo nerd, or a combination of the two, you’ll love that the video maker also has a side by side comparison of the two videos (below) so you can critique his recreation with all your righteous nerd fervor.

Dr. Dre has been busy celebrating the Beats acquisition with fountains of Hennessy but the world’s favorite hip-hop producer isn’t the only musician who stands to make a fortune off Apple’s big purchase.

Enter William Adams. You probably know him by his stage name, Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. He’s been pimping the Beats brand since day one and for his loyalty he’s been blessed with founding shares in the company that stand to make him more money than he ever saw from his Grammy-winning song, “I Gotta Feeling.”

Someone in global ad agency Oglivy & Mather is clearly thinking different (read: not really thinking at all) because they’ve featured Steve Jobs as one of the historical figures in a bizarre, and bafflingly offensive, ad campaign for Indian mattress company Kurl-On.

The theme of the ads is the idea of bouncing back (because, you know, mattresses have bounce in them) with famous people shown recovering from low points in their life to “bounce back” to greater levels of success. Jobs’ own advert shows him being booted out of Apple in 1985, only to return to glory as the creator of the iPad.

A metallic back for what appears to be a larger ‘iPad Pro’ has been posted on the Chinese forum Weibo. The part looks to be for an unreleased 12.9-inch model, and the same person has also shared images of an iPhone 6 dummy that matches previous leaks.