Is there any end to the awesomeness of Drafts? The write-once-send-anywhere app for iOS has added a great new sharing feature for those using iOS 7, without developer Greg Pierce having to do anything. If you use AirDrop, you can send a chunk of text to anyone else with an AirDrop-capable device, even if they don’t have Drafts.
Hot off the Apple event—it’s our iPhone 5s and 5c reactions on our all-new CultCast. We’ll take a look at what’s new in iOS 7 and each new iPhone, and we’ll walk step-by-step through all the powerful new tech Apple unveiled throughout their 60-minute keynote. No stone goes unturned…
Have a few laughs whilst getting caught up on each week’s finest 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 unadulterated audio enjoyment begin. Show notes up next.
In just a few short days, everyone’s iPhone is going to look a hell of a lot different now that Scott Forstall’s felt and wood grain reign is coming to an end. To celebrate rise of Sir Jony Ive’s flat and parallax world, GadgetLove created one of the most incredible iOS 6 vs iOS 7 comparison GIFs we’ve ever seen. The best part is staring at Forstall’s shrinking smile as Jony’s designer scowl quickly morphs in and out.
Source: Gadget Love
We got a glimpse of the incredible graphics and gameplay of Chair’s upcoming Infinity Blade III during the Apple’s keynote on Tueday, but Chair released a cinematic trailer for the new game this morning that dives into the Infinity Blade mythology of the first two games before setting up the narrative of the final chapter of Infinity Blade.
Unlike Infinity Blade: Dungeons – which was eventually canned after fans were left waiting over a year for the release – Infinity Blade III is ready to go and will launch in the App Store on September 18th for $6.99. The game features seven huge new worlds, fire-breathing dragons, and enough swordplay to keep you entertained for weeks.
Take a look:
Earlier today, we told you about a new video from Microsoft that attempted to bash Apple’s latest iPhones. It was poorly done, not funny, and just genuinely awful. The clip was actually part of a seven-part group of videos that made fun of Apple employees(?) of some kind making ridiculous, cliche pitches for different features, like the 5s’s fingerprint reader, in a generic boardroom. Each video was posted under Microsoft’s official Windows Phone YouTube channel.
It only took a few short hours for Microsoft to realize that these videos were total duds, and they’ve all been taken down.
Why did these videos exist in the first place? We’ll probably never know. Someone at Microsoft thought they were a good idea, but a quick scan of the YouTube comments while the videos were live proved otherwise. The videos weren’t really put together like TV ads, so maybe Microsoft hoped they’d go viral? Better luck next time.
Source: YouTube
Evan loved it, which made us want to try it. And try The Room we did, finding it to be a gorgeous, brain-engaging, Myst-like exploration of the puzzle genre, with some amazing 3D mind-benders to solve.
Here’s our video showing us solving the third chapter; we’ve condensed it a bit so that you’ll still have to do your own puzzle solving, though.
It’s hard to exaggerate the effect that stereo has on sound. Sure, it gives you different sounds from the left and right speakers, positioning the musical instruments or the on-screen action in 3-D space, but it also opens up the sound and makes it seem a lot bigger… Even when used with tiny speakers.
And while candy-bar all-in-one speakers like the Jambox pack in stereo speakers and stretch the soundstage using electronic trickery, it turns out that old-fashioned physical separation still works great. Which is why the otherwise average Earshots speakers are worth a listen.
The iPhone 5c pre-orders went off this morning without a hitch and supply for days, but Apple has decided not to offer pre-orders on the high-end iPhone 5s. Customers looking to grab Apple’s newest smartphone as quickly as possible will be pleased to know that you can wake up at 12:01AM PDT next Friday, buy your iPhone 5s, and get back to bed without suffering through the Apple Store launch lines.
Apple sent customers an email this morning announcing the iPhone 5s will be available to order from the Apple Online Store starting at 12:01AM PDT on September 20th. The lack of pre-orders probably means everyone’s going to slam Apple’s servers at midnight, and who knows how long initial supply will last. But if you miss out, you can always go to your nearby Apple Retail Store which will open a couple hours early at 8AM on the 20th to take your money.
Update: Microsoft got the message that the video sucks, and it has been pulled.
The Apple parody video fad has been a bit played out the past couple years, but Microsoft thinks its got the comedic chops to take on the iPhone 5c and convince you to switch over to its struggling line of Windows Phones. The company’s WindowsPhone channel on YouTube just released a parody video depicting two stumped iPhone designers who just sit around a conference room table tossing out different color ideas to a pensive Tim Cook.
You would think a multi-billion dollar company like Microsoft could afford some better video production, or at least have the cash to hire a decent writer, but instead we’re left with leprechaun jokes and a plastic fork.
Want an iPhone 5c parody video that’s actually funny? Our pal John Elerick and his crew of Apple bashers are back this year with two banned iPhone promo videos for the iPhone 5c and 5s. Get your laughs in after the jump:
Behind the scenes, it’s been a long time coming, but welcome to the first issue of Cult of Mac Magazine!
Cult of Mac Magazine is a weekly news magazine devoted to the world of Apple. Every Saturday, we’ll bring you the best of what the Cult of Mac blog does on the Web, in an iPad-friendly format.
Get ready for a whole new way for Facebook to make navigating through your feed on your iPhone hell! Facebook is preparing to launch auto-playing videos in your News Feed… and, yup, they’ll eventually be available to advertisers.
Okay, we’ve had a bit of fun with the gold iPhone 5S, but in reality, it’s a pretty fantastic looking device… and hey, it can resist knife attacks, too. So there’s a lot to recommend the gold iPhone 5s.
If you’re considering buying a gold iPhone 5s, you might also considering throwing a few bucks towards the Juicies+ Kickstarter. They’re making a gold Lightning cable that would look absolutely perfect plugged into your new gold iPhone 5S.
https://youtu.be/6oV12xzErxg
Wondering what the new “slate gray” iPhone 5s will look like compared to the black-and-slate iPhone 5? A new video shows off the color as seen in Apple’s recently released slate gray iPod nano.
Hey kids! Overslept your alarm like we did? Well, don’t despair: the iPhone 5C is still available for pre-order, and still will deliver by next Friday, September 20th.
Readdle’s new iOS calendaring app, Calendars 5, launched yesterday, and after a day of use I can confidently state that I can find nothing wrong with it. In fact, I like it a whole lot. Why? Because it combines your calendars and reminders in one iOS7-style app, and folds in Fantastical-style natural-language entry.
It’s pretty great.
Got yourself a pair of Beats headphones? I’m sorry to hear that, but I do have some good news: no, there’s not a magic fix to tame the over-boomy bass and bring balance back to the sound of your expensive cans, but there is an iPhone 5 case that’ll help you wrangle the red cord.
Actually, the Cordii Case will work with any sufficiently thick headphone cable, not just Dre’s overpriced junk.
If iPhone 5 chargers keep getting smaller at the same rate, soon the whole thing will fit inside the Lightning hole like some kind of USB-powered suppository. For now, though, you’ll have to settle for the still impressively small ChargeKey, a teeny tiny USB-to-Lightning adapter that – yes – hooks onto a keyring.
If you never downloaded the free Snapseed app for OS X before Google axed it, then you have a second chance – as long as you;re using Google’s Chrome browser anyway. Google+ added a browser-based version of Snapseed to its flailing social network.
Perhaps best known for their bag-making skills, Aussie-based STM Bags is no slouch when it comes to iPhone and iPad armor. This week saw the introduction of a new STM iPhone 5/s wallet case — and two new cases they’ve already prepped for the iPhone 5c.
Did they receive 5c specs from Apple? Nah mate, they say the bonzer new cases are the result of good planning and a lot of hard yakka. Fair dinkum!
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Ever tried using an iPhone or Android phone to navigate with GPS through crowded streets? It’s pretty difficult, even for a veteran cyclist like me, to split my focus between the road and tiny symbols on the phone’s tiny screen.
Plugging in to a headset to hear turn-by-turn directions sometimes works, but cycling with headphones can also be a pain (not to mention illegal in places under certain conditions).
The answer, of course, is a heads-up display like Google Glass; but until it’s ready, there’s the Hammerhead, a light-powered navigation aid with some other cool tricks up its sleeve.
Days of Wonder‘s Small World was the first ever cardboard-and-plastic board game to jump the digital chasm and become an iPad board game; the game actually made its debut the same day the iPad went on sale, over three years ago.
In the intervening years, Days of Wonder has neglected the digital version of Small World somewhat, and instead concentrated heavily on its best-known title, the massively popular Ticket to Ride (of which there is now a bewildering assortment of variations — both physical and digital — available for play).
But now, finally, the indy game company has come back to the game that started it all and released Small World 2 on the iPad — a huge, socially rich sequel that should make board-game fans very happy once the sticker shock has abated.
Did you know Sir Jony Ive is a huge Burberry fan? True story. He went to London this past summer to see the runway fashion show put on by Burberry, as you can see in the photo to the right.
Interestingly, Apple on Thursday announced a surprise collaboration with Burberry, a London fashion brand sometimes unfortunately associated with lowlifes, known in Britain as “chavs.”
Ive will certainly be happy today* to hear that Burberry is teaming up with Apple to use the not-yet-released iPhone 5s to capture and share images and video from the upcoming runway show in London, taking place this coming Monday, September 16.
This new collaboration is inteded to showcase the new clothing line, of course, but also to show how great the iPhone 5s iSight camera is, with it’s new, larger pixels, exposure area, and lens. It will allow photographers at Burberry to take high quality photos and high resolution video of the runway models, product details, and moments backstage.
Just imagine all the slo-mo.
Organizing class work and keeping track of grades can be a pain. The aptly-named Grades app aims to be the ultimate tool for students in the App Store, and version 3.0 arrived today with a host of new features.
Grades 2 was good enough to receive an Apple Design Award, but updates have been so stagnant that the app is just now receiving support for the iPhone 5’s taller display. Today marks a huge leap forward for Grades, and there’s more to come with the impending launch of iOS 7.
Today Apple released version 10.8.5 of Mountain Lion in the Mac App Store. The update brings multiple bug fixes, including one for Mail app randomly not displaying emails.
10.8.5 has been in beta testing alongside OS X Mavericks over the summer, and today’s update will likely be one of, if not the, last Mountain Lion update before Mavericks is released later next month.
Here’s the full change log for OS X 10.8.5:
According to an anonymous tip, we’ve been told that RadioShack plans to offer iPhone 5c preorders in all of its US retail outlets tomorrow morning when the stores open.
So, if you miss out on the midnight-madness at Apple.com or one of the big carriers tonight, you can waltz right in to a RadioShack tomorrow and preorder an iPhone 5c in any color for any one of the major carriers in the US. Not too shabby.
Added to yesterday’s announcement of good Trade-in deals at RadioShack, it looks like the electronics retailer is stepping up to become a force in iPhone sales.
Image: Android Fan Network