News - page 1407

Last week, Alex Kibkalo, a former Microsoft employee living in Lebanon, was arrested on charges that he had sold the Windows 8 source code in retaliation for a bad performance review. What was most shocking about the arrest was the means by which Microsoft gathered evidence pinning the crime on Kibkalo: they went into his personal Hotmail account and read his email to figure out it was him, without a court order to do so.

Apple would never do something like that by reading iCloud email without a court order, right? It’s not that simple, actually. Like Hotmail, Yahoo, and other webmail providers, iCloud’s terms of service specify that Apple reserves the right to read your email at any time.

Want to supercharge your stock music player? If you’re on a jailbroken iPhone, check out Aria. It’s a new Cydia tweak that adds a number of new improvements to the stock Music.app in iOS 7.1, including the ability to see albums in a grid view, a new ‘Now Playing’ interface (like in Apple’s Remote app), an ‘Endless Playing’ feature that will start a shuffled play after an album ends, improved lyrics views, and a number of UI improvements, including gestural support.

From a tectonic perspective, any time Apple releases a new version of iOS, it’s like an Earthquake hit the internet. But you might be surprised by how high on the Richter Scale an Apple iOS release is.

This chart by network management services provider Deepfield shows just how big of a seismic event the release of iOS 71 was. From almost zero traffic, iOS 7.1 caused traffic to spike to over 1 terrabyte of data per second… and that’s just a partial view of the effect iOS 7.1 had on the world’s networks. Imagine what this chart will look like when iOS 8 comes around?

Via: GigaOm

Blackberry — which recently celebrated the notable achievement of a zero percent marketshare in the smartphone space — has turned into a patent troll now. In suing Ryan Seacrest’s Typo iPhone Keyboard case (which gives the iPhone a physical QWERTY style keyboard which can be slide onto the screen when necessary) now claims that it is a “deliberate” copy of Blackberry that violates three patents.

Of the endless barrage of clones that emerged after Flappy Bird’s surprise success, Flapthulhu is the one that I go back to over and over again. Not only is it a clever parody of both the works of H.P. Lovecraft and the Flappy Bird phenomenon in general, but it’s a genuinely better game than Flappy Bird, with a subverseive sense of humor, fantastic 8-bit style graphics great style. Now, Flapthulhu has gotten better thanks to a version 2.0 update, which adds to major new features.

Consumers update their iPhones at a fairly aggressive pace: when a contract expires, usually within two years, most consumers immediately upgrade to another one. But that’s not the way people upgrade their iPhones… in fact, it’s looking like iPads might be, for most consumers, more like Macs, which are replaced every 2-4 years.

The MacBook Air already feels impossibly thin and light, but it’s set to get even thinner and lighter if a rumor out of Asia is to be believed.

We’ll admit we’ve called the iPhone 5c a flop more than a few times. But it’s important to remember that what is a flop for Apple would be a huge success by the standards of any other company, which is why the iPhone 5c outsold every Blackberry, Windows Phone and Android flagship in Q4.

That’s not to say that the iPhone 5c’s sales are what Apple wants it to be. In the most recent quarterly earnings conference call, Tim Cook himself admitted that iPhone 5c demand “turned out to be different than we thought.” Even though the iPhone 5c is selling well according to the standards of the rest of the smartphone industry, you have to wonder if even for $100 less, people would really prever a colorful plastic iPhone 5c than a premium-feeling iPhone 5. Even people opting for year old miles are buying an iPhone to get a high-end product, and the major failing of the iPhone 5c seems to be the plastic just doesn’t satisfy that requirement. What do you think?

Thanks to a glitch in iOS 7, it was possible to put folders inside of other folders. With iOS 7.1, Apple fixed the glitch, but lo and behold, they seem to have missed an even bigger glitch that makes it much easier to accomplish the same thing. Here’s how.

In the Marvel universe, Captain America is a World War II era super soldier who happens to get frozen in ice, only to dethaw in modern times. As such, there’s a lot he’s missed out on, and in the latest Captain America film, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, we get a quick list of Captain America’s notebook, tracking the things he doesn’t “get.”

Lo and behold, Steve Jobs and Apple made the list, alongside Nirvana, Rocky, Thai Food, the moon landing, and — inexplicably — I Love Lucy.

Via: Reddit

Secret sauce—it’s the reason Apple keeps winning where others fail, and on our newest CultCast, we discuss the recipe that keeps Apple ahead of the pack. Plus, iOS 8 rumors detail some powerful new features; whispers of an impossibly thin iPhone 6; A-list musicians praise Pono as the digital music player for audiophiles; iPad 4 makes a comeback; and we reveal our favorite Cult movies on a all-new Get To Know Your Cultist!

Guffaw 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 uproarious good time commence.

And thanks to FreshBooks for sponsoring this episode! That’s right, Fresbooks the simple online accounting solution built for small business owners – just like you – who want to skip the headache of tax time. For a limited time, try FreshBooks free 60 days, and enter “CultCast” in the “How Did You Hear About Us” section.

Show notes up next!

Leave your comments, topics, or suggestions on our new Facebook page! We always try to include them in the show. Facebook.com/TheCultCast.

Episode

CultCast #118 – The Secret Sauce

On The CultCast this week

Leander Kahney – Cult of Mac Editor-in-Chief, loyal subject of the Queen.
Erfon Elijah – Cult of Mac writer and host of The CultCast.
Buster Heine – Cult of Mac writer and community manager.

This Week’s Stories

iOS 8 Apple considers Notification Center Messages tweaks removing Game Center app (Discussion)

Pegatron And Foxconn Gearing Up For iPhone 6 Production [Rumor]

Apple Retires iPad 2, Replaces It With Retina Display Model

Apple Confirms The 8GB iPhone 5c Will Not Be Sold In The U.S.

Tim Cook Says ‘Haunted Empire’ Book Is A Bunch Of Nonsense

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple fanpeople are gearing up for MacWorld/iWorld 2014 here on March 27-29, and while we’ll be at Moscone West live to cover all the happenings of this year’s show, it’d be so much better if some fans join in on the fun.You can hang out with us at the “6 About To Break” contest and join the mayhem for a live CultCast recording session, too.

No tickets? We’ve got you covered.

We’re giving away two free tickets to Cult of Mac readers to MacWorld/iWorld 2014. To enter, just tweet why Macs rock your world and include a shoutout to our iPad publication, Cult of Mac Magazine, with the hashtag #CultofMacMag.

The contest is open to all readers, but doesn’t include travel or hotel. Winners will be announced Monday morning at 10AM PST.

Good luck!

Update: Our two winners have been selected. Congratulations Andrea Holtz and Paul Burt on winning free tickets to MacWorld/iWorld 2014 and thanks to everyone who entered the contest.

Remember Twitter’s #music app? It was basically D.O.A. when it launched in the App Store last summer, and it hasn’t been updated since September.

Twitter has announced that it is officially pulling the plug today. The app will no longer be available for download after this afternoon. For those already using it, the service will work until April 18th.

Originally designed as a way to discover music based on who you follow and trends on Twitter, #music never really caught on. Farewell #music, we hardly knew you.

Source: Twitter

Via: Engadget

The appropriately named Transit app for iPhone has already gotten a lot of love in the App Store, including Editor’s Choice, and it is getting featured again because of a major update that’s out today.

Transit is designed to provide you with realtime data on public bus and train systems in 62 metropolitan areas around the world.  Today’s update includes a more streamlined way of figuring out the right route to take, the ability to search locations using stop codes, a drastically improved offline mode, and more.

Here’s the full list of changes:

Apple has been talking to record label executives about launching its own on-demand streaming service, according to a new report from Billboard. In what would certainly be a shocking turn of events, Apple is allegedly considering an iTunes app for Android as well.

“The surprising discussions are part of a multi-pronged strategy to deal with the double-digit decline in U.S. download sales at Apple’s iTunes Music Store,” according to the report.

There have been several jailbreak tweaks over the years that have attempted to revolutionize the concept of multitasking in iOS. Few, if any, have come as close as ProWidgets, a new widget framework that’s available in Cydia now.

I say close because I don’t think ProWidgets solves a better way to multitask on the iPhone and iPad. However, it is a valiant effort that allows other developers to create third-party widgets that live outside of the traditional app experience.

SAN FRANCISCO — We’re gearing up for our weeklong foray into the world of video games at the Game Developers Conference here. Cult of Mac will bring you the best of the conference, from heartfelt chats with independent developers to wacky schwag we find on the expo floor.

Stay tuned as we add real-time posts to this liveblog all week.

While many have developed puzzle video-games, not many have compared to the popularity of the hit game “Tetris”. Symbol Link is a new puzzle app created by Alexey Pajitnov, the mind behind Tetris, that has players connect symbols in the least amount of paths. Do you think you can link all symbols and get a high-score?

Take a look at Symbol Link and find out what you think.

This is a Cult Of Mac video review of the iOS application Symbol Link brought to you by Joshua Smith of “TechBytes W/Jsmith.”

Since taking over the Tonight Show from Jay Leno, Jimmy Fallon has brought in a host of stars to sit down and goof around with him in the studio. Last night was no exception as singer Billy Joel stop by and the pair form an improvised Doo-Wop group using nothing more than an iPad app.

They got a bit of help from The Roots to really bring it home at the end but for only mixing it up on the spot with an iPad even Tim Cook himself was impressed.

Check this out. @jimmyfallon and @billyjoel with iPad and a cool app called Loopy HD. Magical. https://t.co/dWlZr6Lsm6

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) March 21, 2014

Yesterday it was reported that Oscar-winning actor Christian Bale was in talks to play Steve Jobs for David Fincher’s upcoming biopic with Sony and Aaron Sorkin. While nothing has been confirmed, the rumor has already fueled some imaginations, as evidenced above.

Reader Ste Smith sent us this Photoshop job of Bale in the iconic Jobsian pose. It’s pretty believable, if we do say so ourselves.

Bale is known for his intense process of getting (and sometimes staying) in character. He’s great at losing and gaining weight, and he has already played balding characters multiple times. Is there really anyone more perfect to play Jobs?

And lets not forget that he already auditioned for the role like five years ago.

Thanks: Ste

It’s well known that Apple products are regularly the target of pickpockets, but apparently iThievery extends to less evolved primates also.

A 10-year-old girl visiting New Zealand’s Auckland Zoo had her brand new iPod touch (a combined birthday and Christmas present) pilfered by a sneaky spider monkey.

Three months after its launch, kart racing game Angry Birds Go! has received its first major update.

The update ushers in a change in weather by adding a snowy theme, which sees a brand new track covered in slippery ice.

Want to take good night photos using your iPhone, but find that the device’s in-built flash — consisting of a couple of LEDs — doesn’t result in the kind of pictures you want?

If so, you may be interested in this Kickstarter campaign to build a new iPhone 5/5s case, packing a whopping 56 LEDs into a hard case to provide a bright panel of lights for all your nocturnal photographic needs.

Jony Ive has made it to the final ten to crown the UK’s Designer of the Year at The Drum Design Awards in April.

“This is the cream of the UK’s design crop,” says The Drum editor Gordon Young. “Each individual here is a pioneering presence in design and thoroughly deserves to be celebrated for their ongoing contribution to this dynamic industry”.

Pop quiz:

Is the iTie

a) A derogatory term used by older English people to insult Italians?
b) An electronic collar which uses a tie as a flexible screen – kind of like an iPhone, only a tie?
c) All of the above?

The answer is of course c), and we have the pictures to prove it.