News - page 1459

One of the most phenomenal — and frankly, underrated — aspects of the handheld computing revolution ushered in by the iPhone and its ilk is how much power, in the form of knowledge, has been placed, literally, in people’s hands.

Case in point: iCitizen is a new, free app that clearly and elegantly places pretty much all the information you need to know in order to make informed voting decisions — right in the palm of your hand. There you go: Direct democracy in the palm of your hand, courtesy of the iPhone (and the app’s developer).

Sure, The Room Two is a sequel to Fireproof Games’ original effort, The Room, but more of the same, with bigger and better puzzles is most definitely not the worst thing in the world.

Check out our video of the tutorial level of The Room Two below to get a sense of the game, and decide whether you’ll want to purchase the game right away.

Wait, what am I saying? Of course you’re going to want to.

Aspyr has figured out how to shrink an entire galaxy (one far, far away, of course) onto the iPhone and iPod; all the Wookies, Jawas, Jedis, Tusken Raiders and bounty hunters — all now made tinier as Aspyr updates the previously iPad-only Knights of the Old Republic as a Universal App.

To celebrate this feat of quantum mechanics (or simple coding, your pick) Aspyr has slashed the app’s price in half, from $10 to $5.

New Years resolutions are just around the corner and if running if your go-to method for shedding the holiday pounds, Nike+ just added a coaching feature to its running app that promises to whip you into shape.

The free app allows users to create running goals like taking on your first 5k, 10k, half-marathon, or marathon, and then lays out a running regiment for you up until the big day of the race. Nike+ Coach trains users by mixing in various distances and running paces throughout you jog and can setup running reminds for you to help get you off the couch.

Here’s what’s new:

55 percent of Hinge users are looking to find a relationship, according to internal user surveys by the app developer. 35 percent want to find good dates. Only 5 percent admit to just wanting a hookup.

That’s a huge contrast from other apps like OK Cupid or Tinder, said Hinge developer Justin McLeod, who spoke to Cult of Mac over Skype.

His goal, he said, was to create a much better dating app, one that was just as easy to join as Tinder, but with more quality results. It seems to be working, as the app is growing by 10 percent every week.

Things has been a staple to-do app on iOS and OS X since the iPhone app was first released back in 2008. And despite its infamously slow update cycle, it remains popular.

The Apple Design Award-winning app has not yet received its major iOS 7 redesign, but today Cultured Code has announced that Things 3 will be coming “as early as possible in 2014.”

On top of that, Cultured Code is also announcing that Things has sold one million copies to date.

We’ve shown you plenty of app deals, but this one may be the best. App Santa is a new project from some of the best and most popular indie iOS developers. It includes 15 award-winning apps that have been discounted for Christmas, like Clear, Tweetbot, 1Password, and Day One.

Here’s the full list:

Remember that story we ran recently about the Grinch Apple Store that stole Christmas?

For those who don’t recall, the news item in question concerned a giant Christmas tree  in shopping area De Passage of Netherlands city The Hague, which had been removed at Apple’s request so as not to obscure the entrance of its new store.

Just as in real life — where trouble-making siblings get more attention than quiet, studious ones — it seems that everyone is speculating about the supposed low sales of the iPhone 5c, while ignoring the fact that the iPhone 5s is ticking along nicely.

Very nicely, in fact, according to Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Chris Caso, who says that sales of the 5s haven’t fallen off since launch — and are more than offsetting weak demand for the 5c.

Investors and other interested parties may have an explanation for Apple’s M.I.A. deal with China Mobile — and that explanation could be lower-than-expected iPhone 5c sales.

That’s according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who suggests that this is the reason a deal between the two parties has yet to be finalized.

It’s come a long way from its disastrous early days (although there is still the occasional tendency to direct someone the wrong way up an airport taxiway), but Apple Maps may finally be taking the lead over its competitors — if you’re inclined to believe Apple’s latest patent.

The patent — recently published by the US Patent and Trademark Office — was filed May 31 this year, and applies to an “Interactive Map” application, which would display multiple layers of information regarding local landmarks.

The built-in iOS Reminders app has two big advantages: it’s ubiquitous, and it syncs flawlessly between devices. This makes it a great back end for other apps’ reminder systems, which is handy as the reminders app is a nightmare. Viewing and checking off completed tasks is fine, but creating them? Even Siri starts to seem attractive.

Luckily, you can now use an app called This Week to create and use your reminders. Better still, it excels at adding and managing due dates, which is the weak point of Reminders’ already weak task-creation offering.

Having issues with the VPN service for OS X Server Mavericks not accepting L2TP connections?

According to Apple the problem can happen if the client and server are behind different network address translation (NAT) gateways.

What would happen if you took a dork-o-lithic nylon “Executive Laptop Case” and tossed it onto a (giant) blender with a Chrome messenger bag? Well, I guess the blender would choke and break, but if you used a metaphorical blender then you’d end up with a slurry that could be turned into the Boa Nerve, a bag designed to take you “from the conference room to your bike.”

Coinciding with the launch of the redesigned Mac Pro and the upgrade to Final Cut Pro X, Apple’s pro digital audio workstation Logic Pro X has also received a major update — in the form of a Mac Pro-optimized version number 10.0.5.

The IMDB app has finally – finally – been updated to fit in with iOS 7’s tasteful decor. Heavy users of the app won’t really notice anything different in the layout, which remains as easy to use as ever (and way better than the terrible web version), but everyone will appreciate the new lick of paint, and the other new features that have been added to v4.0.

Speaking of remote-control and movies, Filmic Remote is a new companion app for the fantastic-but-fugly iOS movie-shooting app, Filmic.

As you will have guessed from the name, Filmic Remote lets you use one iOS device to remote control the Filmic app running on another iOS device.

AirWeb is web browser for your Apple TV. It uses your iPhone or iPad as a control and shows the results on the big screen via AirPlay, letting you quickly browse to any site using your multitouch screen.

You know hellish it is to watch somebody else browse the web as they double-click links and circle their cursor/finger around the page as they search for something to click? AirWeb solves that problem.

Back before there was home video, there was Super 8, Kodak’s home movie system which used film cartridges to record sound and moving images, ready to be played back onto a giant projector screen at home. So pervasive is the aesthetic of Super 8 that even today, fake home movie footage in TV shows and movies is usually degraded to look more filmic.

But this isn;t a post about nostalgia. It’s a post about a sweet new digital cartridge – the Nolab – that brings old Super 8 Cameras back to life.

Pyle Audio makes one of pretty much everything. If it has wires, knobs, plastic or is made of a material that can be found in or near our solar system, Pyle makes it. Cover for your boat’s stereo? Yes. How about a thingy that detects leaks from microwave ovens? You bet. And a waterproof telephone handset for the shower? Try not to gurgle when your boss calls.

Add one more gadget to the (wait for it) Pyle. This time, the prolific company has proffered up a scale — one of the fancy Bluetooth-connected ones that comes with its own app.

Shazam has been a favorite iOS app of mine for years. Have you ever been out and about, heard a song, and wondered what it was? That’s what Shazam is for. It’s always felt like magic to me, and the app’s developers have even added the ability to identify TV shows.

The most recent update to Shazam adds a feature I’m not sure I like, the ability to listen and identify music/TV without the user asking. In the past, you’ve always had to tap the button in the center of the screen, but now an auto switch makes it possible for the app to be listening in the background even when it’s not open or the iPhone is locked.

The new Mac Pro finally went on sale this morning with initial orders shipping by December 30th. After only a few hours of being on sale, shipping estimates slipped to February for all configurations.

Now Apple is saying that it will be awhile before it can catch up with demand.

Thanks to the rise of the iPhone and iPad, Windows users are switching over the Mac in greater number than ever. If you’ve spent your entire computer life playing in Windows, you’ve probably accumulated quite a few apps in your toolkit that are Windows-only and letting them go during the switch ain’t easy.

For those Mac users that are having trouble letting go, but don’t want to throw down money on a new Windows-license just to use a couple apps, CrossOver 13 for Mac will let you install and run popular Windows software without having to reboot into a separate Windows partition.

When the original iPod launched, it was a very different beast to the svelte little beauties we know today. They were large, they only worked with Macs and they synced via bulky Firewire cables. Nonetheless, they were the best music players around at the time, and they made you feel proud to be an Apple fan-boy and to own a Mac.

Back then, the web unboxing meme hadn’t taken off, and yet all the love, care and attention that Apple puts into their packaging was already present. So I thought it would be a fitting tribute to unbox an original iPod as if it was the latest toy to be “Designed in Cupertino, CA.” Enjoy…

Back in 1984, Apple released the first Macintosh home computer, a magnificent piece of vintage computer design that would shape the destiny of the next 25 years of Apple’s corporate history.

What would it have been like to pull a vintage Macintosh 128K out of the box? To first separate the keyboard from its styrofoam lining? To first snap open the hard plastic floppy disc case? To first learn how to use MacWrite using an audio tape?

Over on eBay, one seller has been trying to sell a vintage Macintosh, still in box with complete documentation, equipment and even packaging. In his attempts to sell his prize, he has given us all a treat: a wonderfully thorough and loving unboxing of what it would have been like to open a vintage Macintosh up for the first time.

Since eBay items disappear when the auction ends, we’ve archived these incredible unboxing pics on our servers. Prepare to see a lot of them below.