Leitz’s Icon is a label printer for iOS (and other mobile) devices, and it actually looks good enough to be an Apple product – the shape is clean and pretty, yes, but it also looks dead easy to use.
There was a time when practically every new console or games computer you bought came with a title called something like Winter Olympic Games.
That time was the 1980s — and the games in question tended, for the most part, to suck. While it was probably just a way of getting rid of unsold stock, the games seemed purposely designed to rob your excitement at receiving a new console — featuring uninspired graphics, repetitive sound, and controls that didn’t work worth a damn.
Jump forward a few decades and I had severe flashbacks of that sinking feeling while settling in to play Cubed Snowboarding.
What was your first Tweet? Now you can find out with a cool new tool from Twitter that shows you the first public Tweet of any user. My opus is above, and not as embarrassing as I’d expected.
To use the tool, just follow the link and tap in a user name. That’s it, so without further ado, let’s embarrass the rest of the Cult of Mac morning crew by publishing what they wrote, and seeing who joined Twitter earliest.
Byword on iOS just got around 100 times more rad, and way easier to use, with the addition of one single feature: keyboard shortcuts. It doesn’t sound like much, but in addition to adding bold and italics using just the keyboard, you can also control pretty much every aspect of the app, all without reaching up to touch the screen.
Tweetbot for Mac has been updated with large image/video thumbnails to match the recent update to its iOS counterpart. The thumbnail option can be turned off entirely in the display settings, but I’m not sure why you would want to do that because they look great.
The app also supports three finger left/right swipes in the timeline if your Mac’s trackpad is configured that way. Some bugs have been squashed as well, so be sure to get the update in the Mac App Store. Tweetbot costs $20.
Source: Mac App Store
Medium, the publishing platform from Twitter co-founder Ev Williams, has finally released its official iPhone app. As you would expect from a site that prides itself on clean, minimalistic aesthetics, the app is quite nice.
It is also incredibly limited.
There are no editing or posting options for actually sharing content on Medium. The app is solely for reading, at least for now.
Amazon has been rumored for years to be making its own smartphone, but now, according to reputable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, it’s actually going to happen.
But the weirdest thing isn’t that Amazon’s planning on releasing a smartphone… it’s that they are going to release a smartphone with six cameras per unit. What what?
When Jony Ive ripped Scott Forstall’s spine out (metaphorically speaking) and took over as the design head of iOS, he got rid of many gradients, shadows, and other elements that made the app look, at worst, skeuomorphic.
Sadly, though, Ive hasn’t had a chance yet to take the same approach to OS X. But everyone’s expecting OS X 10.10 to flatten OS X out, and Dribbble designer Danny Giebe has a gorgeous look at what the next version of Mac OS X — which he codenames ‘Syrah’ — would look like if Ive extended iOS’s design to the Mac.
Check the full redesign out after the jump. What do you think?
Everyone at Cult of Mac knows I’m a sucker for wood-paneling all of my gadgets. I wood-paneled my iPhone 4s, my iPhone 5, my iPad, my iPad mini, and even my MacBook Air.
I have to say, though, that as understated as they are, I love Richard Clarkson’s wood-panels for the iPhone 5 most of all. They replace the tiny glass accents on the upper and lower parts of the iPhone 5 with little wood slivers in a variety of accents that looks amazingly understated and lovely.
Currently only available for the iPhone 5, Clarkson’s wooden replacement accents cost $38 a pair. There’s cheaper and easier to apply options, but we love this none the less.
Source: Richard Clarkson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3QWRY_k6V0
Sadly, iOS 7.1 finally put an end to the Evasi0n jailbreak, the versatile hack that allowed anyone running iOS 7 to iOS 7.0.6 to run unsigned (i.e. Apple verboten) code on their iOS devices.
But all is not lost! Seasoned jailbreaker Winocm has posted a video of iOS 7.1 running on a jailbroken iPhone 4, untethered.
Apple is releasing new Mavericks betas like clockwork with the last three coming one week apart from each other. Developers can now download the latest Mavericks update, OS X 10.9.3 beta 3 from the Mac Dev Center or via Software Update.
The first OS X 10.9.3 beta added support for a full range of Retina scaling modes for 4k monitors. The other have mostly focused on bug fixes with the latest seed note asking devs to focus on graphics drivers, audio, Safari, and contacts & calendar sync over USB in iTunes.
An iTunes 11.1.6 beta was also released this afternoon to devs that restores the ability to sync contacts and calendars to USB after Apple removed the option in favor of an iCloud-only approach.
Source: Apple
Apple has updated Garageband for Mac today with the ability to export songs as MP3s, a feature that was removed in the big redesign of Garageband last fall.
Other changes include:
Today Starbucks released the big iPhone app redesign we previously told you about. The interface has been completely redone down to the icon, and the overall aesthetic improvement is drastic.
The main addition in today’s update is the ability to digitally tip baristas, which is currently available in about two-thirds of U.S. stores. Other new features include shake-to-pay, sharing options for rewards milestones, and integrated account history.
Here’s the full list of changes, including some more screenshots:
Puzzles have been stumping people for quite some time. From jigsaw puzzles to the Rubik’s cube, people everywhere have been trying to tackle their fun challenges. The app Unroll Me features lots of levels at different difficulties having players help guide a white ball to its goal. Can you slide every piece correctly and quickly enough to get a high-score?
Take a look at Unroll Me and find out what you think.
This is a Cult Of Mac video review of the multi-platform application Unroll Me brought to you by Joshua Smith of “TechBytes W/Jsmith.”
Tim Cook has been named one of the top 50 greatest leaders in the world by Fortune. The 53-year-old Apple CEO is positioned at number 33 on the list, and the only American tech CEO above him is Amazon’s Jeff Bezos at number 10.
Few CEOs can hold a candle to the wrath and fury of Steve Jobs, but when it comes to epic rants, Christian Bale can certainly hold his own against el Jobso, which might make him the perfect person to play Steve in the Aaron Sorkin written film from Sony.
Director David Finch is keen on getting the Dark Knight into Steve’s black turtleneck, according to a report from The Wrap, which says the director has pegged Bale as his top choice to play Steve Jobs.
It’s that time of year when office work comes to a stand still for weeks thanks to the NCAA’s annual celebration of sweat, leather, and nylon nets. The first games have just gotten underway and thanks to the glorious blessings of technology there are more ways to follow the March Madness action than ever before.
Here’s how to keep track of your favorite teams and your brackets on your iPhone, iPad and Mac:
Q) What’s safer than keeping your iPhone in a soft case to protect against unexpected falls and impacts? A) a soft case that just happens to give you accidental damage insurance.
That’s the neat concept behind iSkin’s new Claro GearCare combo, which combines the clarity of a hard plastic case, the protection of a soft-gel case and the security of, well, a good warranty service — thanks to an included GearCare Accidental Damage Warranty Service.
Samsung is back at it with a new ad that makes fun of the iPad. But this time the Korean company decided to go after all of its competition in one fell swoop; the Microsoft Surface and Amazon Kindle are also called out.
The whole ad consists of the same recycled arguments (you can’t do two things at once on an iPad, etc.), and there’s the usual flair of weirdness Samsung seems to be so fond of in its TV spots. My favorite exchange:
“So, your Samsung looks better than my iPad because it has got more pixels.”
“Right.”
“But mine has got the Retina thingy.”
Want to know what a library created by Apple might look like?
A public library in San Antonio, called BiblioTech, has become the U.S.’s first bookless public library — letting patrons check out five e-books at a time either on their home devices, or using the tablets or one of the 48 iMac computers featured in the Apple Store-inspired library.
Since updating to iOS 7.1, a number of users have complained of tethering issues — meaning that information doesn’t save when trying to entering custom APN settings into a device’s Cellular menu.
In the update, Apple has apparently disabled users from setting up Personal Hotspots on carriers who either aren’t official iPhone partners, or who don’t support the feature.
If you’re looking for a one-stop-shop to aggregate all your recent updates from various social networks, you may want to take a look at the newly-launched Recents iOS app.
Currently supporting Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr, the app features a clean interface optimized for viewing different types of content — whether that be an article from Facebook or Twitter, or a photo or video from Instagram or Tumblr.
BlackBerry CEO John Chen recently dismissed iPhone users as “wall huggers” due to his suggestion that they constantly have to hug walls looking for electricity sockets to stop their phones running out of battery midday.
Two patents published Thursday show that Apple is not taking similar criticism lying down, as it actively investigating the possibility of intelligently discerning when, where and how we use our iOS devices — and utilizing this information to tweak performance to prolong battery life.
Pyle’s Rocket Torch is a combination Bluetooth speaker and flashlight. It also has an FM radio and a microSD-card slot, plus a carabiner to hang it from your bag, belt or shower head. Yes, shower head. This thing is water resistant too.
Imagine the chaos that could be achieved by connecting three iPhones to a single stereo using a three-way cable splitter, and letting everyone fight for the right to run the party.
Now imagine that you can do the same thing, only wirelessly. That’s the idea behind the 3Play, a Bluetooth receiver from Grace Digital that’ll let you and your friends all share the music you love simultaneously.” Simultaneously!