News - page 1373

Months of beta testing has finally culminated with the official release of iOS 7.1 to the public, Apple’s biggest update to iOS 7 since its launch last September.

The update doesn’t come with big new features, but Jony Ive and the software team have made a ton of small design tweaks, most notably in areas like the Phone app, shutdown interface, calendar, as well as a number of Accessibility options that tweak the UI further with Button Shapes and darker colors and improved contrast.

Here’s a rundown of all the design tweaks you’ll be getting on your iPhone today:

Apple has just started rolling out its latest iOS 7.1 update with performance improvements, design tweaks, and more. This is the first major update we’ve seen since iOS 7 made its debut last September, and it’s available on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

If living next door to Tim Cook is on your bucket list you just missed the narrow window to scoop up the condo next door to the Apple CEO.

After being put on the market just a few weeks ago the four bedroom condo owned by Google Ventures co-founder, Bill Marris has been bought for a little under $3 million.

Sure, it’s Monday, but what better way to blow off your entire day than with some gaming?

See, Cellar Door’s Rogue Legacy is one of them fancy-pants Rogue-like-like action games, and it’s got all the sticky, addictive power of “just one more go” with a whole heap of extra “play me more” sauce.

Typically $14.99, it’s on sale right now for a measly $5.09, so get your feets over to Steam and give it a try. Though you really might want to hook up an Xbox 360 controller, as the keyboard controls are just, well, odd.

Keeping with the times, musician Neil Young is set to launch a storming attack on Apple’s iPhone iPad iWatch iPod with his forthcoming PonoPlayer.

Young is set to exhibit the PonoPlayer, alongside a music download store called PonoMusic, at this year’s SXSW.

Popular (and speedy) Reddit client app AMRC has just received a major update.

Adding a new icon for the app, the update also offers (for a $2.99 in-app purchase) some premium features, including night mode, search, and shortcuts to save subreddits.

The Stubilizer is an accelerometer-and gyroscope-controlled mount for GoPro cameras, and it’s designed to smooth out shaky video shot with the action sports cam. Designed by extreme sports junkie Stuart Smith, the rig is small and light enough to mount ion a helmet, and it uses little motors so it doesn’t’ need giant cantilevers and counterweights.

iPhone users may be “wall huggers” according to BlackBerry CEO John Chen, but that doesn’t mean that he’s not taking a page or two out of the Apple playbook.

Describing his vision for BlackBerry in a recent interview with the New York Times, Chen compared his present situation to that of Steve Jobs returning to a beleaguered Apple in the late-1990s.

Mujjo’s new “Understated & Low-Key” case collection is out, and if you like slick and simple leather sleeves for your devices then you’re in luck. I have my eye on two pieces: the Slim Fit iPhone 5s Wallet and the Slim Fit iPad Air Sleeve , both in tan.

iOS comic book-fans can rest easy with the knowledge that Marvel’s Avengers Alliance app is set to be updated with new missions and content relating to this year’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy movies.

The Winter Soldier missions will be available to play later this month, while the Guardians of the Galaxy content will include one-by-one introductions of the film’s characters.

The Miracle Machine is an iOS-connected device that turns bread into fish. Wait, no… It turns water into wine. Only instead of doing it lickety-split to please an angry crowd like that Jesus fella did back in the time of the dinosaurs, it does it with grape juice and yeast, and takes however long it takes for wine to ferment to make.

Arq Backup is like Time Machine for your Mac, only it uses Amazon’s Glacier and S3 for storage instead of a local disk. It also looks dead easy to use.

This is pretty neat – it’s a clutch bag for a lay-dee, and it has a pocket for the iPad, as well as a spot inside for your iphone. If you were to lead it up with your cash and credit cards too, you could get one step closer to losing all of your valuable at once.

I’d say there are enough times you’d need to protect your iPhone whilst using it outside that something like the Surf Sound Play is necessary. I’d also say that Pyle Audio can and has done better. The Surf Sound Play case might work and sound great, but it looks like somebody found it in the dumpster round back of the worst dime store on the block.

Holographic iPhones armed with pico projectors have been a favorite of concept makers since at least 2011, but some things never go out of style, as SET Solution proves with this stunning concept video of the holographic iPhone 6.

The rumors swirl that when Apple unveils the next iPhone in September this year, it will boast a much larger screen. But what would a thinner, 4.7-inch iPhone with a 1080p display, upgraded 10-megapixel camera, and a 9% thinner enclosure look like?

According to this concept by designer Sam Beckett, nearly identical to the current iPhone 5s. Yes, it would be bigger, but it would otherwise have the same proportions, short of shaving a millimeter or two off of the side bezels.

If Apple does release a so-called iPhone Air, I bet this is how they will actually do it. It will look like a natural evolution of the iPhone line so far, not a major design shift.

Despite being a world where one-third of new iOS games are Flappy Bird clones, it’s impossible to say that the App Store doesn’t serve up some genuinely original game fare from time to time.

The eccentrically titled Floyd’s Worthwhile Endeavor is one such title. Resembling one of Terry Gilliam’s surreal animated openings to Monty Python’s Flying Circus, this is a 2-D platformer, that borrows its inspiration (and its graphics) from the the 19th century photography of photo-pioneer Eadward Muybridge.

Today is Daylight Savings Time in the United States, which is always a hazardous time of year for owners of iOS devices. Why? Because try as Apple might they just can’t seem to release a version of iOS that does not have that are triggered by the switch to Daylight Savings Time.

No joke: Apple has had bugs come up in iOS after the switch to Daylight Savings Time in 2010, 2011, and 2012, while 2013 saw a similar New Year’s Bug screw up Do Not Disturb for device owners. Now here we are in 2014. Does iOS 7 contain a Daylight Savings Time bug?

It does! If you open Calendar on your iOS 7 device, you will notice that while the time of your operating system is set correctly, the line marking the time in Calendar is an hour old. It’s a minor bug, but hey, how would we remember Daylight Savings Time at all if our iOS devices didn’t go wonky once a year because of it?

Thanks: Shane C!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvT0MCugb58

In collaboration with Chaotic Moon Studios, Pizza Hut has unveiled a concept for what it will be like to order a pizza in their stores in the future: on a giant, iPad-like touchscreen table, using an iPhone’s built-in NFC for user identification and payment.

From “no-button” design and multi-touch controls, to wireless technology and laser tracking, Apple mice have seen a lot of changes over the past decade or so.

Although Apple computers have come with mice since the Lisa first shipped in 1983, the company has constantly changed the look and feels of its mice over the intervening years to suit changing tastes — as well as the different ways in which we interact with our machines.

In terms of the biggest changes with Apple mice since 2000, there are few better people to talk to than Abraham Farag, Apple’s former Senior Mechanical Engineer of Product Design.

Today the owner of successful product development consultancy Sparkfactor Design, Faras was part-responsible for many of the big innovations with Apple mice named above — and was able to shed light on how they came about.

Hallelujah, iOS has come to the car! And on this week’s CultCast, we’ll tell you what we love and don’t about Apple’s new CarPlay-enabled automobiles. Plus: why Apple’s best years are still to come; why iOS 7.1 could drop at any moment; rumors of new iPhones every six months; and we pitch our favorite tech and apps on an all new Faves ‘N Raves.

Heartily laugh your way through 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 Backblaze online backup for supporting this episode! Founded by ex-Apple engineers, Backblaze was built to work seamlessly with all the Macs in your life. Get easy-to-use, unlimited backup for your Macs and external hard drives—try it for free at Backblaze.com/cultofmac.

Full show notes up next.

What would your desk look like if it were designed with computers — not books, pencils and papers — in mind.

Takes one to know one, Blackberry. The CEO of the beleaguered Canadian smartphone manufacturer — which recently celebrated achieving its first 0% market share since the smartphone wars started — is now calling iPhone owners “wall huggers.”

Those who live their lives glued to their computers love f.lux, a cone-saving app that automatically adjusts the color balance of your Mac (or jailbroken iPhone or iPad’s) display at sunset or sunrise so it’s easier to read.

For f.lux lovers, though, the app just got a lot better on the Mac. Previously, F.lux’s only consideration was whether the sun had risen or set, but now, it takes into account your body’s circadian rhtyhm. You can actually train f.lux to take into account when you go to sleep and wake up.

If you love the iPhone 5c, here’s a painful chart, courtesy of analytics platform Mixpanel: Growth of the iPhone 5c is pretty much stagnant at just around 6% (roughly where it’s been since Christmas), even as the iPhone 5s has achieved a 20% share of the iPhone market, overtaking the iPhone 4 and approaching the iPhone 4s in popularity.