News - page 1509

Two dazzling innovations we’re pretty enthused about have melded, as Flowboard becomes one of the first apps to integrate Leap Motion into its Mac platform.

So, the dude who said he’d quit rock and roll when he turned 33 just turned 70. This is a guy that typically covers 12 miles during a Stone’s show as he leaps about the stage, running and dancing. Mick Jagger has been on the cover of Rolling Stone (no relation) twenty times, the first time in 1968.

To celebrate this fairly amazing milestone for the quintessential rock and roll superstar, This Day In Music apps has made its Rolling Stones tribute app, This Day In The Rolling Stones, free.

If you’re a Stones fan, and let’s face it, most of us are in some way, you should check this one out. According to the developers, This Day In The Rolling Stones is going to remain free forever. Bravo!

After using iOS 7 for a couple of months, I’ve been missing some of the gorgeous iPhone themes that are out there for jailbreakers. You may think that theming iOS 6 is pointless when Apple’s next-gen OS is right around the corner, but one of the most prolific designers in the jailbreak community doesn’t agree.

We’ve highlighted Sentry’s work multiple times on Cult of Mac, and he’s most famous for Auxo, a popular app switcher replacement tweak. Aplo is a new Winterboard theme from Sentry that has been in the works for quite some time, and it’s drop-dead gorgeous.

Fitness trackers are a dime a dozen these days. Good fitness trackers are a little harder to find, but they’re out there. With rumors swirling that Apple itself is getting into wearables, everyone is getting into what is quickly becoming a very crowded market.

Shine is a new product from Misfit, a startup co-founded by former Apple CEO John Sculley, that takes a unique approach to monitoring physical activity. It comes with a gorgeous iPhone app, and it’s designed to clip onto more than your wrist.

We’re big fans of the Philips Hue lighting system, which allows you to control your house’s mood and lighting with a slick iOS app. The only problem is that there’s been only one kind of Hue lightbulb until now.

But the Hue lineup is getting more versatile. Philips is set to expand their funky Wi-Fi-controlled lightbulb line with LightStrips and Bloom Bulbs.

Twitter announced today that it is bringing a new verification process to its iOS and Android apps to improve security. The new feature allows you to protect your account with two-factor authentication that can be turned on and managed directly from the app, rather than having to depend on third-party SMS clients.

Along with beefing up security, Twitter also added a new gallery view that can be seen when you tap “view more photos’ from a profile, or by doing a photo search. Lists can be managed from within the app now, too.

You can read about all the engineering details that went into the new two-factor authentication on Twitter’s blog and grab the free update right now on the App Store.

Here are the release notes:

Twelve South, one of Cult of Mac’s favorite accessory makers, has a new stand out called the HiRise. Announced today, the elegant, metallic device is designed for holding the iPhone 5 and iPad mini. Like most of Twelve South’s products, the HiRise looks right at home amongst your other Apple products.

iOS 7 beta 4 was just released last week, but that hasn’t kept Apple from pumping out another beta to developers faster than you can say “Oppenheimer.” Beta 5 was released today, and like always, there are some subtle and not-so-subtle changes worth noting.

Here are eight changes in iOS 7 beta 5:

Holy crap, right? Robert Suarez dropped this amazing video up on YouTube, showing him beating the entire tower in under three minutes (2:58, to be exact), a full 32 seconds faster than the game developer’s own Game Center achievement.

There are some slight spoilers in the video, as it shows the entirety of the tower, from the bottom to the top level, with some cool avatars, power ups and the final boss. If you don’t want to see these things, preferring to work your own way up to the top, don’t watch the video.

For the rest of us, who know we’ll never be as good as this guy, it offers an incentive to keep plugging away at the game, which we reviewed favorably here.

We’ve contacted Robert via Twitter to find out how he got to this feat of Knightmare Tower awesomeness, and will update as we hear more.

Via: TouchArcade

Along with the new beta for iOS 7, Apple has also seeded a new beta version of Apple TV 5.4 to developers.

Developers can download the new beta from the iOS Dev Center or via the direct links below:

It’s only been a week since the last iOS 7 beta came out, but Apple just seeded the fifth beta to developers this morning. The new update can be downloaded over the air, or directly through the iOS Dev Center.

Here are the direct download links:

Those still rocking an iPad 2 may have been disappointed to see that it wasn’t supported by Deus Ex: The Fall when the title made its debut on iOS last month, but a new update out today fixes that problem. It also brings major improvements to enemy artificial intelligence, and addresses some bugs.

Jobs, the upcoming Steve Jobs biopic starring Ashton Kutcher and Josh Gad, gets its second official teaser trailer today, ahead of the much-anticipated cinema debut August 16. It’s entitled “American Legend,” and you can check it out below.

We’ve already seen a whole bunch of iPhone 5S components over the past few months—they’ve even been shown off in hands-on videos—but these high quality images show the changes Apple has made to its Retina display when compared to the iPhone 5 model.

Apple’s earbud redesign year was a contentious thing. I thought the new EarPods sounded as crummy as the old ones, but unlike the old ones, at least they weren’t like shoving pieces of glass into your cochleas. On the other hand, our supreme commander, Leander, thought they sounded as good as $150 dollar Beats. Which, come to think of it, might mean that we were agreeing.

Either way, the EarPods are the earbuds most people stick with when listening to their iDevice. But if you jog or are active, the EarPods have one big flaw: they fall out of your ears at just the hint of perspiration. But a new, $10 accessory solves that deficiency for good.

When iOS 7 launches in the fall, iTunes Radio will give millions of users the ability to listen to a Pandora-like station of streaming music an algorithm thinks they’ll like, with each track available for purchase with just a tap. Yet despite the name, iTunes Radio isn’t really radio, because radio with its DJs imply human curation.

But that might change before launch. Word has it that Apple is now approaching real radio stations to be included in iTunes Radio.

We all hate iTunes—it’s the fashionable thing to do. The smarter amongst us have switched over to Rdio and Spotify or another streaming service, and use iTunes solely as a way to sync our iDevices.

But Vox is a new app (launching today) which will give you access to your iTunes library without all the cruft that makes it almost impossible to use for, you know, tunes. It’s pretty sweet.

Meet the eleMount, a poseable aluminum mount for your iPhone or—if you’re feeling adventurous—the iPad mini. It’s like a little angle poise elbow for your phone, letting you set it at almost any angle you like.

Tasket is a service that syncs your Google Tasks list with your iOS Reminders list. It performs this magical feat pretty much flawlessly, using a Microsoft Exchange server to do the syncing, and letting you add and remove tasks from pretty much anywhere.

Apple has uploaded a new iPhone 5 ad today to its YouTube channel that showcases FaceTime video calling. Entitled “FaceTime Every Day,” the one-minute clip continues the “Every Day” series which began earlier this year, promoting features that are more popular on the iPhone than on any other smartphone.

Nikon’s new SB–300 is an entry-level speed light that you probably shouldn’t buy. It’s a tilting, non-swivel model that runs off two AA batteries, costs $150 and has pretty much zero off-camera manual control.

You should be careful when using third-party chargers for Apple devices. Multiple reports have surfaced recently of iPhone owners being electrocuted by malfunctioning chargers in China.

Apple has announced a new USB Power Adapter Takeback Program for those who wish to swap out their third-party chargers for official ones. The program begins August 16.

Originally planned as a June 11 release, Sim City is now going to release on August 29, 2013, according to a tweet today from EA’s official SimCity Twitter account.

Joining another hotly-anticipated game release for the Mac, Bioshock Infinite, SimCity will hopefully be ready for prime time and not delayed again.

My kids and I have been watching episodes of Adventure Time, Cartoon Network’s disturbingly funny cartoon show. The adventures of Finn, Jake and a cast of crazy characters is compelling television, and hilarious on many different levels.

Legends of Ooo – Adventure Time originally launched for iOS last year in June, and while it provided some of the same fun and voiceover work as the cartoon show in a goofy little iOS package, it only came with one episode, “The Big Hollow Princess.”

This oversight has been corrected this past weekend with the release of the second episode, “The Library of Doom,” an all-new story and adventure game with new voice overs for the characters within. Even better, Episode 2 is absolutely free for a limited time as an in-app purchase. Shmow-zow!

If you haven’t gotten to check out The World Ends With You: Solo Remix yet, it’s completely understandable. Publisher Square Enix has a reputation for charging much more than the typical iOS game when it releases its popular games onto Apple’s touchscreen platform. It totally makes sense you might not want to pick it up for $17.99 for your iPhone, let alone $19.99 for your iPad.

If I said that the game, originally released to the dual-screen Nintendo DS, is completely worth every penny of the asking price, would you pick it up? Probably not.

But what if I said that both versions are now much less expensive, with the iPhone version in the App Store at $9.99 and the iPad version at $10.99? If you love innovative, brilliant gaming on the go, you’ll go grab a copy right now. Who knows how long the sale will last?