File under the ever-growing list of “things Android does better than iOS.” Today it’s Gmail, which now lets you reply to, archive or delete your messages right there in the notification. Meanwhile, us schmucks with iPhones and iPads are stuck digging into preferences just to toggle Bluetooth on and off, and waving a freshly-slaughtered chicken over our heads as we try to make Photo Stream work again.
If you’re a Hulu Plus subscriber that prefers to consume your favorite shows on Apple’s diminutive set-top box, great news: Hulu has just announced a new Hulu Plus experience that they say they have completely redesigned from the ground up.
There are a handful of apps that I have to have on every Mac I use, or things quickly start to get annoying. Launchbar is one. Dropbox is another, and TextExpander is one more. TextExpander is sold as a way to expand a short string of text into a longer string of text, so I can just type, say, “aadd” and my address magically appears. I use it all day long on both Mac and iOS for adding Markdown and HTML code to my Cult of Mac posts, and even to the the name Cult of Mac (shortcut: ccom).
But there’s a lot more in there, as this example will show. BEcause TextExpander can run scripts, it can query all kinds of neat stuff — including finding out about your Mac.
Evernote Food, the iOS app for foodies that lets you keep a record of all the recipes and restaurants you want to remember, has received a major new update adding a number of neat new features. In addition to OpenTable reservations, users can now share recipes with their friends, enjoy better search results, and more.
Apple just released its latest iOS 6.1.3 update, which fixes a lock screen security flaw that allows users to bypass a passcode lock. The update also makes improvements to Maps for users in Japan.
Bubble wrap is one of the funnest creations man has ever invented. Not only does it keep your valuables safe from the nefarious hands of postal workers, but it’s fun as hell to pop between your fingers.
Bradley Hart is obsessed with bubble wrap too, except rather than destroying it like the rest of us, Hart creates incredible portraits by painstakingly injecting paint into each little bubble. The results are pretty amazing. He created the Steve Jobs portrait you see above, but he’s got a lot of other artwork you can browse through over on his personal website too.
Source: Visual News
According to some (questionable) reports, Apple will finally offer the iPhone in various different colors later this year. But rather than waiting to see whether or not that actually happens, why not take matters into your own hands. A number of third-party iPhone 5 replacement parts are now available to purchase, and they come in all sorts of pretty colors.
According to those dandruff-shouldered, bad-breathed “experts” at camera clubs the world over, converging verticals in a photograph are “bad.” Converging verticals are the effect you see when you tip your camera back to capture to top of a building and the verticals appear to point towards each other instead of straight up.
Amazingly, these “experts” never complain about converging horizontals.
So if you are planning on entering a competition at your local camera club, and there will be buildings involved in your pictures, then you might want to take a look at Perspective Correct, an app to — you guessed it — correct perspective.
Apple still isn’t correctly informing consumers about their warranty rights in Europe, according to the European Union’s Justice Commissioner, Vivian Reding.
The Cupertino company changed its European warranty policies last year after it came under fire for not meeting EU regulations. But it’s still not providing consumers with the right information in at least 21 of the EU member states, Reding says.
Mailbox might be getting all the e-mail press these days, but there’s a long line to get in, and it looks terrible on the iPad. Incredimail isn’t anything like Mailbox, but neither is it like any other e-mail client. Think of it as something like Flipboard fro you e-mail and you” get the idea.
Wish you could do more with Notification Center in iOS 6? Besides the couple of stock widgets Apple includes, there isn’t a lot of functionality to be found. On my iPhone, it usually feels like a waste of space. What if you could compose an email or quickly access your camera alongside notifications?
Jailbreaking allows you to do that and more, thanks to a couple of handy Cydia tweaks.
There aren’t many good docks out there for Apple devices with the new Lightning connector, especially the fourth-gen iPad and iPad mini. While you’re on the hunt for a viable docking solution, check out this neat iPad dock made entirely of Legos. It’s from the same people who made the iPhone 5 Lightning Lego dock we showed you last year.
It’s a pretty cheap dock alternative that appeals to the kid in all of us. You assemble the kit yourself, and it works with any iPad that uses a Lightning connector.
Starwood Hotels recently opened Aloft Cupertino, a slick hotel that is located two blocks away from Apple’s famous One Infinite Loop headquarters in Cupertino, California. Given its close proximity to Apple itself, it only makes sense for Aloft to put Apple products into its rooms.
Unlike the crappy cable boxes that are usually in hotels, Aloft has installed an Apple TV in each of its 123 rooms with full access to all of the set-top box’s features, including AirPlay.
If you’re a designer or developer hunting for a CSS editor that does it all – and is going to save you a boatload of time – then there is no better opportunity out there with this Cult of Mac Deals offer. You’ll get Stylizer for only $40 – that’s 50% off the regular price!
The real-time editing capability allows you to edit your pages faster than ever and will literally help you save hundreds of hours in the course of a year playing around with your style sheets. Plus, this software works with both Mac and Windows machines. (Note: Browser previews dependent on your operating system).
Facebook has released an update to its iOS app that adds a few improvements, most notably the ability to change your cover photo. For some reason this feature has been missing all this time, and now it’s finally been implemented.
Group messaging has also been streamlined. Facebook says it takes fewer taps to start a group message, and it’s easier to name and find conversations in your inbox.
Source: App Store
Apple’s Mac sales have been in a bit of a slump lately thanks to issues with the production of the super skinny iMacs. Now that constraints have eased up a bit, sales are coming back strong.
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster released a new research report today that covered Apple’s U.S. Mac sales from January-February 2013, and revealed that Mac sales are currently up 14% year-over-year.
Pay $80, get $100 worth of apps, music, movies or iBooks, thanks to this killer iTunes Gift Card deal over at Best Buy.
That’s basically free money: if you’re ever likely to spend more than $80 through iTunes (and that’s pretty much all of us) you’d be stupid to pass this opportunity up. Better act fast.
Source: Best Buy
Thanks: Roger
During his tenure as CEO of Apple, John Sculley saw the company suffer through a serious lack of innovation that nearly sunk the company, before Jobs came back and rescued it.
In an interview earlier this month, Sculley said he thinks Apple is experiencing a “lull in innovation.” To clarify his stance, Sculley just gave another interview and said that even though Apple’s experiencing a lull, it’s not really its own fault.
Speaking with Huffington Post, the former Apple CEO had the following to say about Apple’s perceived innovation problem:
If you jailbreak your iPhone or iPad, you are most likely to be an American male under the age of 30, you’re using either an iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 running iOS 6.1 and your phone probably crashes around once or twice a week.
Or so says, at least, the following infographic, cataloguing the responses of 400 redditors, trying to put together a picture of the typical jailbreaker. The responses are illuminating, but definitely put the geoscape of jailbreaking in very clear perspective. Check it out.
As a reader of Cult of Mac, I’d say it’s a safe bet that you have a whole bunch of 30-pin docks around your home. And that those docks have been rendered useless by Apple’s evil insistence on equipping all of its new devices with smaller, tougher, easier to use Lightning plugs.
Now, we bring good news. With just €13, you can resurrect your pointless plastic paperweight.
After hearing the news that Ashton Kutcher’s phenomenal Steve Jobs biopic has been delayed, you’re probably super bummed right? Well, the first Steve Jobs biopic is coming really soon, except it wasn’t written by Aaron Sorkin, nor does it star Ashton Kutcher.
Justin Long is set to star as Steve Jobs in Funny or Die’s own Steve Jobs movie, iSteve. The Steve Jobs biopic from Funny or Die will be a parody on biopics, and it will be released online on April 15th.
Ask some people and Apple’s Maps is the cat’s meow, and just as reliable (if not more so) than Google. Ask others (like me) and Apple Maps seem to have been plotted out by the Buster Bluth of catographers, and they haven’t been able to get accurate directions anywhere ever since iOS 6 launched.
The Apple Maps vs. Google Maps debate isn’t likely to be settled any time soon in userland, but what do developers think? Which is better for developers: Apple Maps or Google Maps?
We keep hearing rumors that the iPhone 5S is going to come to us in a rainbow of different color options. While we find it hard to believe that Apple will colorize the iPhone 5S, we do think the rumored cheaper iPhone, with it’s plastic or carbon fiber body, would be perfect for colorization.
Concept artist Martin Hajek has a few new renders of what a colorful iPhone 5S or cheap iPhone would look like. Basically, it looks a lot like the current iPod Touch in a good way. Having the option to choose blue or red iPhone would be a lot better than just black or white, but do you guys think Apple is actually going to colorize the iPhone?
Take a look at the pictures below and tell us what you think:
WhatsApp, the hugely popular cross-platform messaging service, is bringing its paid subscription model to iOS. The company hasn’t yet confirmed when the move take place, but it will “definitely” happen during 2013. When that time comes, you’ll need to pay $0.99 a year to use the service.
Back in 2010, a team of hackers who went under the group handle Goatse Security exploited a hole in AT&T’s website to steal over a hundred thousand iPad subscribers’ email addresses.
The first of the pair, Daniel Spitlier, plead guilty to the attack back in 2011, bringing him a 12-18 month maximum sentence.
His partner, though, hasn’t gotten off nearly as easily: Andrew ‘weev’ Auernheimer has just been sentenced to forty-one months.