The data-hungry tentacles of the NSA have managed to choke America’s top tech firms into silent submission on data requests, but after months of demanding more transparency, Apple is ready to defy authorities and let you know when the NSA wants your data.
Prosecutors warn that such a move will undermine investigations by tipping off criminals and allowing them to destroy sensitive data, but according to the Washington Post, Apple and others have already changed their policies.
Although it looks like a vanilla PC in a boxy case, the machine pictured above is a high-performance, custom-built Hackintosh.
This thing is hot! Known as the P280, after its Antec case, this Hackintosh is equivalent in performance to Apple’s latest Mac Pro workstation, but costs significantly less.
Roughly comparable to a Mac Pro costing $3,500, the P280 was assembled from off-the-shelf PC parts costing just over $2,000, including a water-cooling system to chill its chips. The Hackintosh runs Apple’s OS X Mavericks and, according to its builder, bests a similarly configured Pro on many benchmarks.
It has none of Jony Ive’s industrial design magic, of course, but that’s not the point. This is a DIY rig that’s as badass as it gets.
Less than a decade ago, Apple was singled out by Greenpeace as one of the least environmentally friendly tech companies on the planet.
Apple has since turned over a new leaf, embracing environmentalism as something every bit as central to the company as the latest iPhone.
Just how important became evident a few months ago, when, during a routine earnings call, Cook spoke of his dream for Apple as a “force for good in the world beyond our products.” The recent global celebrations for Earth Day for the first time in nearly a decade mean that his dream is closer to becoming a reality.
So what changed exactly?
Apple’s FaceTime service is getting another rival — courtesy of an update from disappearing messages service Snachat.
The update will introduce instant messaging and video call functions — opening up more possibilities for users wanting to have private conversations.
As with existing Snapchat messages, conversations won’t be stored on users’ phones by default. Since some conversations are worth saving, however, the update will allow users to manually save them.
As we creep closer to the expected September release date of the iPhone 6, more mockups and reported leaks are showing up on what seems like a daily basis.
This latest one, which surfaced on the Chinese technology blog 86Digi, is a physical mockup claimed to be based on real iPhone 6 machine schematics from sources in the supply chain.
It shows the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 as a 6mm thin devices, featuring rounded edges and various other changes — including a relocated power button, rectangular volume controls on the left hand side of the device, and the camera and circular LED flash on the rear.
Do you remember the classic Simpsons skit from the episode “Homer Bad Man?” When Homer walks past a salesman, they try to catch his attention by yelling, “Hey, sir! Try our wax lips: the candy of 1000 uses.” Homer is skeptical. “Like what?” he asks. “One, a humorous substitute for your own lips,” the salesman responds, before immediately running out of other possible other uses.
Well, Logitech’s new modular case+ promises to be the “wax lips” of the iPhone 5 and 5s — albeit with more actual applications. Using magnets to switch between a variety of interchangeable accessories — including power supply, car mount, kickstand and wallet modules — the case+ hopes to be the most versatile iPhone case yet.
Okay, so pinball maybe isn’t the first thing you think of when hear the two words Star Wars, but this actually looks pretty great.
Developers Zen Studios are veritable Jedi masters at bringing out both the video game quality you need in a digital pinball table, and also at utilizing licenses in a way that doesn’t feel money-grubbing and superficial.
Apple has made another interesting hire in the form of Bobby Hollis, a former vice president of NV Energy who will serve as the company’s new Senior Renewable Energy Manager.
The appointment took place earlier this year, while Hollis took his post back in April.
At NV Energy in Nevada, Hollis worked as the Vice President of Renewable Energy and Origination. He also served on the board of the Solar Electric Power Association, and was recently named one of Las Vegas’s 40 Under Forty business leaders.
Could iBeacons help improve the air travel experience? Sir Richard Branson thinks they could.
Branson’s majority-owned Virgin Atlantic is the latest company to hop aboard the iBeacon bandwagon — announcing plans to use the technology to send customized messages to passenger’s iPhones in London’s Heathrow airport in the UK.
The program, which is being created in conjunction with beacon startup Estimote, will use Apple’s iBeacons technology in conjunction with the Passbook iOS app.
Until today, you had to use the Dropbox-like Google Drive app or web interface to access Google Docs on iOS. But now Google has official apps to work on documents and spreadsheets, called Google Docs and Google Sheets. An app for presentations called Slides is coming soon.
You can view, edit, and share any documents or spreadsheets stored in your Google account through the apps. And unlike Office for iPad, everything is free.
Hulu is finally unleashing its video library to the mobile masses this summer and you won’t even need a Hulu Plus subscription to access it.
Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins announced today that starting this summer you’ll be able to stream Hulu’s shows to your iPhone, iPad, or Android device for free, as long as you’re cool sitting through some ads during your TV show binge-sessions.
Sid Meier’s Civilization V is the best “4X” (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate) game out there, and it can be yours for 67 percent off the regular price of thirty bucks right now in this exclusive to Cult of Mac offer from publisher Aspyr.
Civ 5, as it’s colloquially known, is the distillation of all that is good about the $x genre, which is why the game received universal acclaim and a score of 90/100 on review aggregator site Metacritic.
Aspyr wanted to find a way to acknowledge the support of Cult of Mac readers.
“It’s an exclusive deal for Cult of Mac readers on one of our most beloved titles,” said Aspyr’s Michael Blair. “This is a big ‘thank you’ to the Cult of Mac readers and to Cult of Mac for covering Mac gaming!”
High-school senior Omar Martin Del Campo and his small team of developers have found a way to make text messaging even more secure. Peek lets you chat with friends via the app and your messages are erased as you read them.
The app asks you to authenticate with Twitter or Facebook to ensure your identity to your friends, and then you can chat away in the fairly clean, purple-themed interface on offer.
“Our focus,” said Del Campo in an email with Cult of Mac, “is a great user experience, beautiful design, simplicity and safe and secure messaging.”
Facetune is a great iOS Photo app to have laying around on your iPad or iPhone. It’s a photo-retouching app that will very quickly let you fix up funky faces. Not only does it take care of old foes like red-eye, but it’ll whiten teeth, smooth over the cruelest spray of acne, and even fix up folks whose eyes are too close together.
There’s a reason T-Mobile’s offer to pay off new customers’ early termination fees sounds too good to be true. In certain cases, it’s a rotten deal compared to just paying the fee yourself.
However, with a little hackery, you can flip T-Mobile’s deal from bad to fantastic — and save hundreds on a new iPhone (or any smartphone).
We knew Apple had improved Touch ID recognition in iOS 7.1.1, but now – thanks to Redditor iOSecure – we know how and why.
Apparently, the reason that accuracy would decay over time was down to users screwing up their first scans, when the auto-correction feature needed a perfect start to work properly going forward.
A decade after Burger King choked out Subservient Chicken, the bizarre fast food mascot is poised for a comeback. The wacky dude in a chicken suit, who magically submitted to the Internet’s commands in one of the weirdest and most successful viral-marketing campaigns ever, will return with a clucking vengeance Wednesday with a short film “chronicling the rise and fall of internet celebrities,” according to Advertising Age.
In some ways, it’s perfect timing: Sequels and viral magic have become staples of marketing and pop culture. But can the burger chain recapture the glory of its 2004 campaign, which racked up more than a billion views with its camgirl-inspired creepiness? While we’re waiting to find out, here are 15 bizarre brand mascots that demand a reboot.
CNBC has named Steve Jobs the most influential person of the last 25 years. On a list entitled “First 25: Rebels, Icons & Leaders,” Jobs ranks above the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Warren Buffet — along with the founders of Google, Amazon, and other tech giants.
The organization claims Jobs deserves the spot because, “his vision spurred changes far beyond his industry and put an indelible stamp on the wider culture.”
If you don’t have several hundred million in the bank, and a massive company to lord over, it’s hard for us normal folk to emulate Steve Jobs.
But you could build a sound system like Steve’s.
Based on an iconic portrait of Jobs in his almost empty Woodside, California home in 1982, Wired pieced together the various stereo components needed to build a hi-fi system, endorsed by the man with a taste for nothing less than excellence.
If you ever want to see the difference between Apple and Google as companies, look no further than the fact that Google’s latest Chrome update for the simply-named iOS 7.0 is the bafflingly-titled version 34.0.1847.18.
That minor irritation aside, the mobile update does add some nifty new features — including a new “feature tour” that shows off the browser and its new enhancements to first time users.
There’s also an included tweak to Chrome’s omnibox, which means that the omnibox now supports right-to-left languages: something that should prove useful to some international users.
I’ve always hated running. When I’m asked, I jokingly say that the ten years of life I probably lose by not focusing on cardio-vascular exercise, I make up for by not feeling compelled to jog in a big circle each day after work, or talk about running shoes at dinner parties.
But if there’s one thing that could get me running it’s a zombie apocalypse — in which members of the once-dead rise again to try and feast on my brain and internal organs. And I’m definitely not the only one.
Gamified fitness app Zombies, Run! was launched a couple of years ago, but has just been updated with a number of new features.
For those unfamiliar with it, Zombies, Run! replaces your regular running soundtrack with a zombie story in which you are the main character — with your level of physical exertion playing a part as you outrun zombie hordes, collect supplies, and eventually return (brain intact) to base camp.
Clear, everyone’s favorite swipe-based to-do list app, now integrates with the native Reminders app on the Mac and iOS. Originally planned for February, the latest update lets you get reminded to do things on that list.
Next time some jerk mimes playing the world’s smallest violin at something you said, just whip out the miniscule Fretpen guitar, bellow something defiantly rock-themed at them, and relish in their stunned silence as you headbang triumphantly while shredding your way through Van Halen’s Eruption!
Yes, I see how it may seem as if I’ve let my rock fantasy get a little out of hand. But I strenuously maintain it’s completely appropriate when introduced to the FretPen, a tiny-yet-playable guitar that connects to an accompanying app on the iPhone via low-energy Bluetooth, then rocks out with customizable effects.
We know the iPhone emits radiation, but how much? The answer: Apparently enough to light up luminous glyphs on the back of an iPhone case. A bunch of inventive Ukranians — the same ones who brought us the iBlazr LED phone flash — figured out this little trick, and created the Lunecase, an iPhone 5/c/s case with symbols on the back that light up when you receive a text or phone call.
We’ve seen no shortage of iPhone 6 part leaks recently, and now an alleged mold of the unreleased device has surfaced. French site Nowwhereelse.fr has shared pictures of what it’s claiming is a “physical model” of the iPhone 6.
The source of the model is unknown other than it came from a Chinese forum, so we’re filing this one under very sketchy. But based on existing rumors, the design could be close to what Apple is planning.