News - page 1384

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.

Feel like smashing some glass? How about throwing pinballs to do it?

Well, you can do both in this week’s pick: Smash Hit by Mediocre Games, a free-to-play glass-shattering endless run through some of the prettiest yet most fragile obstacle courses we’ve ever seen.

Here’s a quick video of our play through, along with our thoughts on the game.

Apple Fanboy One Percenters (if such a thing exists) looking for new real estate might be tempted to scoop up the open condo next to Tim Cook, but if you’re looking for something more high-tech, with a bigger price tag, this iPad-controlled mansion in Newport Beach, California just came on the market, and it’ll only set you back $22 million.

It’s a mansion worthy of Fortune Cookie himself thanks to incredible beachfront views. And it fits in with Apple’s push for green renewable energy as 95% of its electricity is supplied by a gigantic solar panel in the backyard.

Check it out:

This week Cult of Mac Magazine looks under the hood at Apple’s new CarPlay iOS 7.

Called “smart and seamless” by those lucky enough to test it out behind the wheel of a Ferrari at the International Geneva Motor Show, the system will be coming to a dashboard near you as soon as 2014.

Reporter Luke Dormehl talks to experts about what the impact will be for the rest of us: whether smart driving and whether we’ll all be heading down the road to the quantified ride anytime soon.

There is a lot of misinformation about CarPlay — from Apple’s relationship with automakers to the suggestion that it’s working side-by-side with BlackBerry  — and the analysts we spoke to have an interesting take on what the new system means for Apple and where the Cupertino company might be headed.

As always, we’re here for comments, suggestions and bug fixes, so send ’em to my email below or hit the “send” icon top right.

Cult of Mac Magazine

The House That Mario Built isn’t any closer to bringing Zelda, Mario, Donkey Kong, and the others to iOS anytime soon, but what would Nintendo’s classic games look like if they were originally built for iOS?

Rather than waiting for Flappy Mario to hit the App Store, Red Bull decided to re imagine some of our favorite Nintendo games with a iOS twist that mashes up the likes of Donkey Kong with Angry Birds, Candy Crush Saga with Dr. Mario, and Nintendo’s own Temple Run knock-off starring Link.

Take a look:

We’ve seen so many iWatch concepts that at this point we really just wish would Apple to show their cards, but here’s a concept of a traditional wristwatch we wouldn’t mind them aping a few features from.

Gábor Balogh says he was tired of all the super geeky looking iWatch concepts, so he whipped up this clever beauty that features modern smartwatch features re imagined in a classic, traditional analog watch way.

Check it out:

Remember the recent bizarre Steve Jobs statue, depicting what looked to be the decapitated head of Apple’s late CEO?

Well, a new Steve Jobs sculpture may have it beaten in the weirdness stakes.

Urban explorer Darmon Richter found the above hexagonal blue sculpture — depicting Jobs’ profile against the iconic Apple logo — during a recent trip to Ordos City, China.

Earlier this week Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Tim Cook for a lunch as part of his tour of the United States.

In the aftermath of the Wednesday meeting, the Prime Minister uploaded a short video clip to his YouTube channel, offering a brief inside glimpse of the Apple headquarters in Cupertino.

New retro-styled JRPG puzzle game Block Legend made it to the App Store today — and it’s accompanied by the most entertaining game trailer we’ve seen in ages.

Inviting players to travel through a range of different lands fighting monsters and completing quests, Block Legend combines tile-breaking gameplay with a massive world populated by different characters.

According to a new report, iPhone users are 46% less likely than other smartphone owners to need a replacement device due to accidental damage — but 65% more likely to have their device stolen or lost.

The insight comes from third-party insurance company ProtectCell, who based their findings on 2 million policies with various mobile device owners.

Award-winning Reuters photojournalism app The Wider Image has just been updated to version 3.0.

Originally arriving on iOS platforms in October 2012, The Wider Image lets users explore the world through captivating visual stories from award-winning Reuters photojournalists.

In addition to images, each story provides additional interactive content in the form of expanded facts and quotes, along with audio materials, and more.

Twitter’s video sharing social network Vine will no longer tolerate porn.

In a new blog post, the company claimed that it has no problem with explicit sexual content on the Internet — they just prefer not to be the source of it.

“As we’ve watched the community and your creativity grow and evolve, we’ve found that there’s a very small percentage of videos that are not a good fit for our community,” Vine wrote.

Stack Motion is a fin new app that helps you cut somebody or something out of your photos and overlay it on top of another photo, or even a video. That’s pretty much the whole premise right there, but there are some clever features to help make it easy.

How much coffee do you drink? If you drink any at all, then the answer is probably “Too much.” And how does all that caffeine affect you? Now, with Jawbone’s new Up Coffee app, you can find out.

Findery, from inventor of Flickr Caterina Fake, is like Instagram for places, or maybe Foursquare for everywhere – even that street corner you like or the park bench you read on sometimes on Sundays.

Findery is a an iOS app and web site, and it lets you save pictures and make notes about places, and either share them with anyone, or just people you know, or even just yourself.

Wello is an iPhone case that costs $200, and monitors your vital signs like a pocket Dr. McCoy. Why would you buy such a thing? Science, bitches! Also, Stanley Kubrick stars in the promo video.

Native Union’s Gripster case is now available for the iPad Air, and it looks like the perfect accessory for folks who own an iPad air and also have hands. Yes, hands – those prehensile utilihooks at the ends of your chestal meat-sticks.

The case combines a grip, a stand and a cover, and is possible even better suited to the Air than it is to the mini, for which it is already available.

Hey dorks, great news! Toady is the day you get to fill up your utility belt with… With really dorky stuff. The brand new Modular Pixel Pocket Rocket is perhaps the hottest thing that’s gonna get near your pants pocket this year. You lucky dog you.

It was only a matter of time, but here it is: TwelveSouth’s BookBook Case for the iPad Air, which makes your fifth-gen Apple tablet look the very model of some ancient, dusty tome, just plucked off of the shelf from the Library of the House of Usher.

Both obfuscating your iPad’s value from thieves and protecting it, the BookBook Case is a perpetual fave here at Cult of Mac.

Like previous models, it allows you to prop up your iPad at a 30 degree angle, both for typing and movie viewing. It comes in black and brown leather varieties — no red yet, sadly — and costs $79.99.

Source: TwelveSouth

Apple’s surprise announcement of CarPlay turned a lot of heads. Bizarrely running on Blackberry’s QNX platform, of all things, CarPlay will launch through partnerships with Volvo, Mercedes, and Ferrari. But how hard will it be for other developers to add CarPlay support to their apps?

The good news is the answer is: ‘not very.’ But the bad news is, Apple’s the gatekeeper to when that happens, and they won’t open up access until they are convinced CarPlay is safe.

It was only a week ago that Apple released OS X 10.9.2, a critical update that fixed a major SSL vulnerability that allowed anyone on the same WiFi network intercept your data.

In Apple World, though, things never stop moving. So here comes OS X 10.9.3’s first beta, which is now available to developers via Software Update or Apple’s developer portal.

There’s no explicit release notes, although Apple has asked developers to focus on graphics and audio. Thankfully missing is any mention of Mail, which has experienced a number of problems since OS X Mavericks was released last October. Perhaps the debacle is finally over.