Mobile menu toggle

Follow friends’ hearts to fuel your Instagram feed

By •

Some folks are amazing Instagrammers.
Some folks are amazing Instagrammers.
Photo: Hoil Ryu/Unslash

Instagram is a veritable playground of fascinating photography. The trick is to find accounts to follow that won’t waste your time with snaps of low-quality food or wacky pets. Unless you’re into that kind of thing.

So how do you find folks worth following? By checking out what the people you follow on Instagram are looking at, of course. You can also check out the photos you’ve liked, and add them to your feed if you haven’t already.

Here’s how to follow your friends’ hearts to fuel your Instagram addiction.

Justice Department thinks Apple’s defying FBI to look cool

By •

iPhone 5c by uveX encryption
It is a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing.
Photo: uveX/Pixabay

The U.S. Department of Justice think’s Apple’s hard public stance on encryption in the San Bernardino shooting case is nothing but a marketing scheme.

The agency said as much in a filing today that implored the court to “[compel] Apple to comply with its order.” It also cites the company’s past cooperation with law-enforcement investigations as evidence that its position has more to do with looking good to its customers than any actual inability to help authorities access the device.

iPhone user Donald Trump calls for Apple boycott

By •

Yeah, we're pretty incredulous about your ideas, too, Mr. Trump.
The brief has been successful despite support from big companies.
Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr CC

Donald Trump has threaten to permanently switch to Samsung if Apple doesn’t give in to the federal government’s demands, and he’s calling on all his followers to do the same.

At a rally in South Carolina this morning the US presidential candidate says that citizens should boycott Apple products until the company hands over the PIN to one of the San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone 5c. Trump neglected to mention though that nearly all his tweets come from an iPhone.

Best text editor apps for Mac OS X [Reviews]

By •

Text editor apps are an important part of any writer's workflow. These are currently the top candidates for Mac owners.
Text editor apps are an important part of any writer's workflow. These are currently the top candidates for Mac owners.
Photo: Alejandro Escamilla/Unsplash

app-factor-logo-thumbnailOne thing I do on my Mac more than anything else is write. On average I write about 10,000 words a week, and some weeks, I double that. And that isn’t even counting email and other kinds of communication. That’s why a great text editor app is imperative to my every day workflow. Without it, I couldn’t do my job.

Our Android guy says Apple should help the FBI [Friday Night Fight]

By •

fnf-fbi
Just hear me out.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s fight against the FBI continues to dominate headlines, with the company standing firm to protect its beliefs and the privacy of its users. But should it really be doing more to help law enforcement agencies?

Friday-Night-Fights-bug-2No one who uses Apple products wants it to compromise the security of iOS by creating dangerous backdoors, but should it be working to find a safer solution that would provide the FBI with information when it’s needed?

Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac as we battle it out over this hot topic — and be sure to weigh in at the end with your opinion!

Why John Sculley doesn’t wear an Apple Watch (and regrets booting Steve Jobs)

By •

Fremont, California, 1990.
John Sculley, photographed in 1990 when he was Apple CEO.
Photo: Doug Menuez

John Sculley may be best known to a generation of Apple fans as the CEO who made the company choose between him and Steve Jobs. But he’s also a successful investor, mentor and entrepreneur — as well as the person who increased Apple’s sales from $800 million to $8 billion during his decade at the top.

In an interview with Cult of Mac, Sculley, who ran Apple from 1983 to 1993, tells why he doesn’t wear an Apple Watch, makes the case that AAPL stock is undervalued, explains how the Steve Jobs movie twisted facts, and talks about his new book Moonshot and the future of entrepreneurism.

New browser brings picture-in-picture to Mac [Reviews]

By •

fluid-header - 2
Fluid Browser comes in handy for graphic design. And workplace distraction.
Photo: George Tinari/Cult of Mac

With iOS 9, Apple introduced a whole slew of multitasking features including picture-in-picture, so I can watch a video while using another app. Even though this was technically already possible on the Mac, there hasn’t been an easy way to get a video to overlay another window so I can focus on both at the same time. Well the new Fluid Browser solves that problem, quite magnificently I might add.

Fluid is its own web browser, but it’s not meant to replace Safari or Chrome for my main usage. Instead, I open up Fluid and go to a website where I want to play video, like YouTube or Netflix. The video itself will enlarge to fit the width of the browser window. Then magically, if I click somewhere else on my desktop, Fluid will float above the other windows and even has adjustable opacity so I can make the video as prominent on screen as I want.

Here’s what Apple’s flagship store in Sweden will look like

By •

Stockholm
Apple's upcoming store in Stockholm.
Photo: Feber

Apple has unveiled its plans to build a flagship store in the heart of Stolkholm, Sweden, and it’s just as gorgeous as you’d expect.

Wendy Beckman, head of Apple retail stores in Europe, presented the proposal at Kulturhuset in Stockholm, complete with a miniature model on display for the public. The new Apple Store borrows some designs elements from the iconic Fifth Ave Apple Store with a large glass box comprising the store space, with a stylish metal roof on top.

The proposed store would blend in with the Royal Garden, surrounded by fountains, cafe tables, a large pool, and tons of trees. Visitors will be able to stop by around the clock to enjoy the beautiful scenery and free Wi-Fi.

Check out the 3D model of the new store:

Carrier’s cunning scheme will block all ‘irrelevant’ mobile ads

By •

carriers-cunning-scheme-will-block-all-irrelevant-mobile-ads-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads201602iPhone-Three-jpg
Three wants to banish bad ads.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Three wants to banish bad ads. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android
Three wants to banish bad ads. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

Who needs ad-blockers when your carrier has your back?

Three has unveiled plans to begin blocking “excessive and irrelevant” mobile ads at the carrier level so users on its network don’t have to endure them when browsing the web on their smartphones and tablets.

This backup service proves the cloud is anything but soft [Deals]

By •

SkyHub is offering easy, secure, capacious cloud storage for life.
SkyHub is offering easy, secure, capacious cloud storage for life.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

It doesn’t matter how iron clad your external hard drive looks — if the fragile disc inside it skips the wrong way or the motor putzes out, you’re looking at a lot of money and time to get your data back. That’s why cloud storage makes great sense for backing up your most important files, and SkyHub is offering an opportunity to protect your data for life. Right now you can get a lifetime subscription for $49.99.

Apple hires high-profile free speech lawyer to take on FBI

By •

Ted Olson is one of the top legal minds in the country.
Ted Olson is one of the top legal minds in the country.
Photo: Wikipedia Commons

Apple is planning to fight the FBI’s terror probe by invoking the right of free-speech and they’ve hired the most legendary free-speech lawyer in the country to help them win.

Theodore Olson, famous for successfully arguing before the Supreme Court that money is a form of free speech in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, is joining Apple’s fight against the FBI’s order to build a backdoor into San Bernardino terrorist Syed Rizwan Farook’s iPhone 5c.

Facebook figures out a way to make Messenger more annoying

By •

Facebook Messenger is getting ads.
Facebook Messenger is getting ads.
Photo: Facebook

Rely on Facebook Messenger to keep in touch with friends and family? Still wondering why Facebook split it out into its separate app? To the first question, it’s about to get more annoying. And to the second? It’s because Facebook’s about to let companies start messaging you in Messenger.

AirFoil 5 lets you stream from your Mac to literally any speaker in your house

By •

Rogue Amoeba's AirFoil just got a lot more powerful.
Rogue Amoeba's AirFoil just got a lot more powerful.
Photo: Rogue Amoeba

Rogue Amoeba’s AirFoil has long been one of the Mac apps we can’t live without. The app allows Mac users to pump audio on an app-by-app basis to any AirPlay speaker within range.

Now, AirFoil 5 is here. And it’s a huge update. Not only does it introduce functionality that allows AirFoil to send audio to Bluetooth speakers and headphones (not just AirPlay devices, like the Apple TV), it can also send audio to multiple speaker groups at once.

Pad & Quill’s new wood cases for iPhone are tougher than steel

By •

The wood on this case has an almost wax-line finish for scratch-resistance.
The wood on this case has an almost wax-line finish for scratch-resistance.
Photo: Pad & Quill

Longtime Cult of Mac readers know I can be a sucker for wood. It’s a material with integrity, and I like the way it juxtaposes with Apple’s preferred design materials of metal and glass. I loved using Monolith’s beautiful wood veneers with my old iPhone 5. And I can’t wait to try Pad & Quill’s new gorgeous wood cases for the latest iPhones.

Mom uses Find My iPhone to track down her kidnapped daughter

By •

The iPhone isn't ditching LCD screens.
Find My iPhone may have just saved a life.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

A mother used Apple’s Find My iPhone feature to track down her kidnapped daughter, tracing the teenager to a McDonald’s parking lot more than 150 miles from her home in Pittsburgh.

The unnamed daughter was being held against her will by her ex-boyfriend, who allegedly kidnapped her and bound her hands, feet and mouth with duct tape — but apparently (thankfully!) forgot to remove the victim’s iPhone.

Apple Pay runs into problem for its China launch

By •

Apple Pay iPhone
Apple Pay's China launch didn't go smoothly.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple Pay made its debut in China this Thursday, but things didn’t go quite as smoothly as hoped — largely thanks to the sheer number of users trying to register with the service.

According to local reports, many users were faced with system errors after struggling to link their credit cards to their Apple Pay accounts.

Woz: Don’t trust the government with your privacy

By •

Steve Wozniak. Photo:
Steve Wozniak believes that Apple's 100 percent in the right.
Photo: HigherEdWeb/Flickr CC

Steve Wozniak may not have been directly involved with Apple for years, but there’s no doubting where his allegiances lie concerning the current Apple vs. FBI skirmish concerning whether or not Apple should help unlock the iPhone at the heart of a criminal investigation.

Speaking with CNET, Woz made clear his opinion that, “You can’t trust who is in power,” and argues that, “Terrorism is just a phony word being used” to try and justify the potential unwarranted snooping in our lives.

Apple Watch helps smartwatches overtake Swiss watch shipments

By •

Apple Watch
The Apple Watch accounts for a 63 percent share of the smartwatch business.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Jony Ive memorably (allegedly) claimed that Swiss watchmakers were “f**ked” due to the arrival of the Apple Watch, and almost 18 months later it seems his prediction is a whole lot closer to coming true.

That’s because, according to new research from Strategy Analytics, global smartwatch shipments have overtaken Swiss watch shipments on a global basis for the first time ever.

See? This is why it’s a bad idea to bet against Jony!

Famed iPhone hacker explains why FBI’s backdoor request is such a bad idea

By •

iPhone-5
Apple shouldn't give into the FBI's demands.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

When it comes to hacking the iPhone, it’s hard to find anyone with more experience breaking into Apple’s software than Will Strafach, aka Chronic.

The legendary hacker has spent years reverse engineering each version of iOS to give jailbreakers full control of the iPhone and he’s got some very important insight into the FBI’s demands that Apple hack the iPhone. 

Mainly, don’t do it!

Online petitions universally support Apple encryption stance

By •

Apple Security Jacket
It looks like the Internet is squarely on Apple's side. This time, anyway.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Online petitions can seem like screaming into a hole sometimes, but that isn’t stopping a crop of them from emerging in support of Apple’s stance on phone encryption.

In fact, our survey of signature-calls about Apple’s current refusal to provide the FBI a way to access the data on a locked phone belonging to one of the assailants in last year’s San Bernardino shooting turned up exactly none that demand the iPhone maker to give the government what it wants. And this is something, considering we also turned up one petition that called for a pair of tortoises to stop having to carry around iPads at the Aspen Art Museum and another that demanded that the United States legalize cockfighting.

Opinions are all over the place, is what we’re getting at, but people seem pretty sure that they don’t want Apple to unlock its phones. Here’s a quick look at some of the petitions going around.

Want people to read your emails? Keep ‘em short and not so sweet

By •

Use these tips next time you're emailing someone.
Use these tips next time you're emailing someone.
Photo: William Iven/Unsplash

If you want people to read–and hopefully respond–to your emails, you should really pay attention to the data.

Email service Boomerang, which lets you schedule emails into the future as well as find out who’s read them, did a little research into its own customers to find out what, exactly, will get recipients to read your missives.

Turns out, if you write like an emotional 3rd grader, you’ll get better results.

Kick or Die makes kung-fu fighting look easy [Reviews]

By •

Kick or Die
This looks so dangerous.
Photo: Boomfire Games

Super-elaborate, open-world games with stats, exploration, or an engrossing storyline are great, but sometimes you just want to put your foot in some ninjas’ faces. And that’s where Kick or Die really delivers.

This mobile title has been out for a couple months, but it’s just received an update that adds some new challenges and bosses. We didn’t play the earlier versions, but the new one is a fast-pased, dead-simple kickstravaganza that will keep your thumbs on their toes, even though that sounds completely stupid and impossible.

The game’s fun, though.

Never miss your BFF’s precious Instagrams again

By •

Find out when your pals post before anyone else.
Find out when your pals post before anyone else.
Photo: YashilG/Pixabay

Avid Instagram users like to know when new photos show up on the social media platform so they can be the first to like, respond, or even comment on their favorite Instagrammer’s pictures.

You can do the same thing by turning on notifications for a specific user, letting you know exactly when your buddies post to Instagram.

Here’s how to enable this cool hidden feature.