Following a short hiatus, Cult of Mac’s weekly must-have apps and games features are back! Here we’ll roundup our pick of the week’s best iOS titles, including our favorite new releases and updates worth writing home about.
This week’s picks feature what is quite possibly the best arcade fighter yet to hit the App Store, awesome updates to Angry Birds Space and Jetpack Joyride, plus a fantastic platformer that I just can’t put down.
Games have held a remarkable 40 month lead over all other categories when it comes to mobile apps. Mobile games have become so popular that even powerhouse console gaming companies such as Nintendo have seen their profits plummet because of them. They’ve given developers the highest ad revenue and have consumed more of a consumer’s time than any other app category. Unfortunately, like all good things, mobile gaming’s reign has come to an end. There’s a new head honcho in app land and its name is social networking.
How quickly WWDC sold out this week – less than two hours and before many developers on the west coast were even out of bed – raises some interesting questions for Apple. Could the company have handled the announcement better? Should Apple allow more than 5,000 developers to attend? Is the current model for WWDC, which was adopted years ago, still viable given the stratospheric success that Apple has experienced over the past few years?
AT&T today announced it would be adding Salt Lake City to its list of markets expected to get 4G LTE later in the year. AT&T continues expanding other areas, with Austin, TX seeing additional coverage just the other day. It’s going to be a slow and steady pace with AT&T so if you’re looking for 4G LTE right away, you may want to consider Verizon, otherwise sit tight and be happy you’re not on Sprint.
High Fidelity, Say Anything and Brat Pack star John Cusack not only met with Steve Jobs to discuss starring in the very first iPod commercial, he got to play around with an early iPod prototype and got an early look at the iPod and iTunes rollout plan, according to a new interview.
This week featured a handful of announcements relating to using your iPhone as a virtual wallet including news of Boston’s smartphone-based commuter rail payment system and CVS integrating its loyalty card system into its iPhone app.
Capping the week is news that restaurant chain T.G.I. Fridays announcement that more than of its franchises in the U.S. will begin offering patrons the ability to settle their restaurant or bar tab using an app. The move comes as part of partnership with startup Tabbedout – a mobile payment company that aims to bring iPhone (and Android phone) payments into the mainstream with a focus on bars and restaurants.
Apple launched the Mac App Store with over 1,000 apps back in January of 2011, and the digital storefront has been rapidly growing ever since. Thanks to warm reception from the developer community and the exclusive distribution of software like Final Cut Pro X and OS X Lion, Apple controls the largest and most vibrant PC software storefront in the world.
15 months in and the Mac App Store is home to more than 10,000 apps. While not as big a number as the iOS App Store’s 500,000+ titles, the success of the Mac App Store heralds the future of software distribution.
Earlier in the year, Apple acquired app discovery engine Chomp in an effort to improve app discoverability in their App Store. As we all know, discovering apps among the hundreds of thousands that populate popular app stores can sometimes be a chore, so it would make sense for Apple to acquire such a company as Chomp. However, Chomp also improved app discoverability of Android apps and since Apple’s acquisition we’ve wondered if this would one day change. Well, guess what? That day has come and it looks like Apple has chomped out Android app discoverability completely.
Some combinations are so obviously good when you see/hear/taste them that you wonder why they haven’t existed forever. Of course, some *have* been around for that long.
Just 6,000 years ago, when the universe winked into existence, the Lord blessed us with such holy wonders as apple pie (or apple crumble in the King James bible) and vanilla ice-cream; Dungeons *and* dragons; and of course hurtling, death-dealing two-ton automobiles and chronically distracted drivers.
Now we can add another devine device to that list: the solar-powered hands-free speakerphone.
Benedit Cumberbatch may look like a Reptilian straight out of David Icke’s worst nightmares, but he’s an incredible actor who not only plays the world’s greatest detective in the BBC’s surprisingly watchable series Sherlock, but will also play the dragon Smaug in Peter Jackson’s upcoming The Hobbit. He also happens, just happens, to be The Most British Man Alive. Oh, and the kind of cool guy who films his audition tapes on an iPhone too, as it turns out.
I hate jogging, but if popular culture has taught me anything, it’s that come the inevitable zombie apocalypse, a trim physique, muscular calves and a five minute mile might be the only thing between me and having my guts stuffed into the rotting maws of some reanimated ghouls. Maybe you won’t run to lose weight, but will you run to save your life?
That’s the idea behind the awesome looking “fitness” app Zombies, Run!. It’s like Runkeeper with a twist: you’re not jogging to burn calories, but running to escape the undead.
Apple’s Newsstand feature wasn’t without controversy as the company rolled it out. Issues around Apple’s control of subscriptions as well as the company’s 30% cut of content sales were hotly debated last year. However, with Newsstand a hit, publishers (and Apple) are reaping $70,000 a day from it.
And, if publishing execs everywhere agree with The Economist’s CEO Andrew Rashbass, that controversy is dead and buried – and it’s other iOS digital distribution models that pose a threat to publishers.
Warning. I’m about to write about yet another iPhone camera rig adapter. I will continue to do this, over and over, until somebody makes a case which makes it easy for me to shoot photos with the iPad 3. If you want me to stop, then all you need to do is whip something up on Kickstarter.
Today’s adapter is the iSupport, a heavy-duty (yet light at 6 ounces) case which covers the iPhone 4/S and makes it a whole lot easier to use for shooting video.
Google is well known for their awesome Easter Eggs and today’s will have you Starcraft faithful Zerging in your pants. If you do a Google search for “Zerg Rush” you’ll soon find yourself defending your page against the ravaging appetites of ominous Os. It’s a fun and geeky reference to the overwhelming scale of attack carried out by the mass-producing “Zerg” race from the popular RTS game Starcraft.
It’s no secret that the iPad is Apple’s fastest selling product ever. That fact was made clear during the company’s recent financial call when Tim Cook compared how long it took for other Apple products to reach current iPad sales figures. What hasn’t been as clear is just how much the iPad is expanding Apple’s overall customer base.
A new NPD study, however, shows that the iPad is playing a significant role in helping Apple attract new customers. It turns out that one out of every four iPad buyers have never owned an Apple product before.
Apple has been sued by a Colorado man who believes the Cupertino company’s magnetic Smart Cover violates his 2005 patent for a “Portable Computer Case.” Jerald Bovino has filed a lawsuit in a federal court demanding royalties from both Apple and retailer Target for using his technology.
Ever think your mobile game high score was Guinness World Record worthy? Well, starting today it just might be. Although arcade and console game high scores have long been recognized by the Guinness World Records, mobile gamers have been left with screenshots, Facebook shares, and tweets as their only method of grandstanding.
Let’s play a quick game of word association. I’ll write a word, and you say whatever pops into your head (feel free to put on a Bluetooth headset and yell out your answers if you are in a public place — everyone will be totally impressed):
iPhone.
Curtain.
Wood.
Tripod.
iPad.
If your response to the last word — iPad — was “large-format camera,” then what we have ourselves here, ladies and gentlemen, is a segue. An awkward, forced segue that leads us right to this video showing just how a large format camera is made.
News, information, and commentary of the Flashback malware threat has ricocheted around the web over the past few weeks. The news of dangerous Mac malware has spread from the Apple and tech media into the mainstream. While not downplaying the seriousness of the threat, a Microsoft announcement yesterday does offer some perspective.
Microsoft made it clear that the Conficker worm is still infecting millions of PCs worldwide – three years after fears about Conficker’s potential damage and the estimated level of infections (estimates ran as high 12 million PCs at the time) created a media frenzy.
Josh Gad, star of the Broadway musical Book of Mormon, is reportedly in talks to play Steve Wozniak alongside Ashton Kutcher in Jobs, the independent Steve Jobs biopic coming later this year.
Apple has emailed a number of developers who scrambled to purchase tickets for its Worldwide Developers Conference this June to tell them that their order has been cancelled. Anyone who purchased more than one $1,600 ticket on their credit card is likely to find that their order is “not eligible,” but a phone call to the Cupertino company could rectify the issue.
Sparrow is possibly the best iPhone app I’ve purchased so far this year; it has completely replaced the built-in Mail client on my device. But it does have a couple things missing: It doesn’t yet support push notifications, and of course, it’s impossible to make it your iPhone’s default mail client.
However, a new tweak for jailbroken devices called Sparrow+ fixes both of these things.
Apple continues its rollout of the new iPad in nine additional countries today, making the sought-after tablet available in 57 markets worldwide. This is now the fourth phase of rollouts since the device made its debut on March 16, but one of Apple’s key territories is still without it.
Apple’s longtime head of industrial design has won yet another prestigious award. As part of its World Intellectual Property Day celebration, Britain’s Intellectual Property Office has given Jony Ive the title of British Visionary Innovator for 2012. The award is given ” to celebrate people who have achieved considerable success or developed innovative products, services or designs.”
JC Penny can’t get enough of Apple’s retail talent, as the American retailer has announced the hire of yet another Apple exec. Back in November, former Apple retail guru Ron Johnson left Apple to become the CEO of JC Penny. Now a high-level Apple retail exec has left to work under Johnson.
Ben Fay served for 8 years at Apple as the worldwide head of retail store design, and he will now be in charge of overseeing JC Penny’s own retail design strategy.