Apple is doing all it can to grow in India. Illustration: Cult of Mac
Apple posted record sales in India during the final quarter of 2015, positive financial news for Cupertino amid forecasters predicting a rough start to the new year.
Apple shipped a record 800,000 devices to India from October through December, a record spurred by a wider distribution base, discounts, buybacks and installment plans.
Old devices piling up? Ours too. If you’re not sure what to do with them, or if you’re just too lazy to get up, we have a solution. Use our device buyback program today to get a quote for your old, used or broken devices, all from the comfort of your home.
These bubbles could be coming from you. But not in a farty way. Photo: Steve Buissinne/Pixabay
Sometimes, you look at your boring glass of ginger ale and think, “This could really use more ions.” Or maybe you don’t, but the makers of the Beverage Power have done that thinking for you.
It’s a small device that the company says will attach to any drinking glass or water bottle. It has a contact on its side that your hand activates, and you complete a circuit when the drink touches your mouth. That introduces a “small, safe electric current” that floods your drink — and, therefore, your body — with negative ions.
And here’s why the company says you’d want to do that.
Watch every Star Wars death scene in 8-bit action. Photo: pipocaVFX
Disney revealed today that Star Wars Episode VIII will be delayed until December 15th, 2017.
It’s only an extra seven months, but it means fans will have to wait two years to find out what happens next to the characters of the highest grossing movie of all time.
If you’re looking for some Star Wars awesomeness in the meantime, the folks at pipocaVFX created an incredible 8-bit video of all the death scenes in Star Wars. You can watch your favorite character die in cutesy 8-bit format below, but bewarned, it includes spoilers from The Force Awakens.
Because it's worth seeing how much your community loves you from a computer too. Photo: Yik YakBecause it’s worth seeing how much your community loves you from a computer too. Photo: Yik Yak
The app that has become famous around college campuses is now ready to show itself in a different form: as a desktop website. The creators have been testing a web version of Yik Yak in private beta for a while now, but as of today the site is open for public use.
You may think you're ready for what's about to happen, but you aren't. Photo: Beardo Games
If you’ve been waiting for the ultimate make-out game experience on your iPhone, keep waiting. This one looks gross.
Smooth Operator will be out just in time for Valentine’s Day, and it looks like exactly the thing to bring your festivities to a halt. It’s a co-op kissing title that is all about you and your partner following on-screen cues to make sure that your avatars keep their waggling tongues moving and … interacting.
We really can’t overstate how unsettling this thing looks, but if you want to see it in action, check out the trailer below.
The brief has been successful despite support from big companies. Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr CC
Would you shell out an extra $50 for your iPhone if it were made in the United States?
Maybe, but getting consumers to pay more isn’t even the most unrealistic aspect of Donald Trump’s goal of forcing Apple to bring manufacturing back to America.
Controversial coder and data artist Josh Begley is back with a new app called Archives that shines a light on the contentious issue of police violence that’s rocking the U.S.
Archives’ premise is simple: Every time cops kill someone in the United States, your iPhone receives a simple alert containing only the victim’s name.
This one should last and last without dropping your cards out. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
Best List: Leather Wallet Case 80° for iPhone 6s Plus by Mujjo
If there’s one thing about leather iPhone cases, it’s that while they wear nicely and look great when distressed, they tend to get a little floppy. The last leather iPhone case I put on my iPhone 6 Plus went all soft and let my ATM card and driver’s license fall out, forcing me to take a trip to the DMV and the bank to get replacements.
That won’t be the, well, case with this upgraded leather wallet case from Mujjo. Its molded-plastic base snuggles my iPhone 6 Plus, while its stiff, stitched pocket keeps my cards safely ensconced without too much give.
Linux is more relevant than ever, and now you can add it to your skillset for an unbeatable price. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
As more people learn the importance of open software and operating systems, Linux is more relevant than ever. Learning Linux can seem imposing, but even if you have no idea what a command line is, this bundle of lessons will make you a maestro of one of the most relevant software platforms in the world. The entire set of five courses, clocking in at over 22 of hours, is just $19.
Crash reports don't have to interrupt your Zen. Photo: Lifehacker
OS X is about as reliable as any operating system out there, but apps still can — and do — crash. When they do, they take up the entire middle of your screen, interrupting whatever you’re doing, even if the app that crashed was running in the background.
It’s a mild annoyance, true, but it doesn’t have to be an annoyance at all. Here’s how to push crash messages to Notification Center instead of the middle of your screen.
Ford is embracing the Silicon Valley vision of cars. Photo: FordFord is embracing the Silicon Valley vision of cars. Photo: Ford
Compared to some of the other automotive naysayers, Ford has been outspoken about the fact that Silicon Valley might (shock horror!) actually be able to successfully disrupt the car industry.
Now a Ford exec says his company actually welcomes the competition from companies like Google and Apple.
Would you sit through one of these if you could play with your iPad? Photo: Wikimedia (CC)
To try to get Millennials to sit through some classical music, the Boston Symphony Orchestra is now handing out iPads to select audience members as they walk into Symphony Hall.
A prototype of NutriRay3D in action. Photo: NutriRay3D
There are many meal-tracking apps and iOS-compatible smart scales out there, but for really dedicated calorie-counters the problem with the majority of them is that they don’t give you the nutritional content of the exact meal sitting in front of you.
A new high-tech food scanner straight out of Star Trek hopes to help solve that problem, by giving you a new iPhone attachment called NutriRay3D, which will use 3D image processing to accurately calculate the volume and calorie measurement of any meal.
More evidence is piling up to suggest that Apple will ditch the 3.5mm jack from the upcoming iPhone 7 — with Twitter user Chase Fromm discovering a potentially revealing line of code in the new iOS 9.3 beta 1.1 software release.
A good reason to sign up for loyalty cards. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
A New Zealand loyalty card program is appealing to its customers’ “good nature” to return brand new iPads after it mistakenly made them available for virtually nothing as part of an unexpectedly special offer.
The closest thing India currently has to an Apple Store. Photo: Lawrence Sinclair/Flickr CC
With the Chinese economy slowing, Apple’s got another heavily-populated country in its sights — with Apple India filing an application to open official Apple Stores with the country’s department of industrial policy and promotion.
“We have just received Apple’s proposal. We are examining it,” said India’s DIPP Secretary Amitabh Kant.
Hermes Apple Watch bands are now available on their own. Photo: Apple
The bulk of the country is about to get some very good news for their senses of style — and bad news for their bank accounts: The super-luxe Apple Watch Hermès will be available for purchase online at the end of this week.
Up to now, you’ve had to live in (or travel to) specific Apple and boutique stores in Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco, or Toronto to pick up the especially fancy editions of the Apple Watch. But starting Friday, you’ll just have to go to either Apple or Hermès’ official sites to score one of your own.
Quirky, personal tech will continue to attract. Photo: BIZOO_N / Adobe Stock
Adobe Stock thinks it knows the future.
At least, the stock photography collective run by Adobe Systems, thinks that photos showing personalized technology (wearables and VR headsets), hipster aesthetics (Instagram, beards, and flannel, anyone?), and more stylish selfies will rule the roost in the coming year.
What’s that mean to you? Well, chances are you’ll see more of these kinds of images in your Facebook and Instagram feeds, and every day advertising life. If you’re a creative professional, you’ll want to stay up on the trending imagery as it evolves over the coming months.
Here’s a rundown of the trends Adobe Stock thinks are coming your way in 2016.
"That would look fantastic on the back of my phone." -- possible serial killers Photo: bohed/Pixabay
If you’re looking for a one-of-a-kind case for your precious smartphone, here’s one that looks like it came straight out of Videodrome director David Cronenberg’s worst nightmares.
Have you seen that movie? It’s messed up.
This creepy phone case comes courtesy of artist Sarah Sitkin, who specializes in amazing, realistic representations of human body parts. And if you want one that looks like its upkeep will include the judicious use of cotton swabs, she’s created one that looks uncannily like you skinned it off of one of your victims as a trophy. But it will cost you.
The streaming TV service is still on the way, but not without some bumps in the road. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
John Skipper, president of ESPN, talked quite a bit in an interview about the future of Apple TV and in particular, Apple’s plans for a streaming television service that may or may not include ESPN. He revealed that Apple is apparently having a hard time sorting out the details with programmers.
“We have ongoing conversations,” Skipper told The Wall Street Journal. “They have been frustrated by their ability to construct something which works for them with programmers. We continue to try to work with them.”
The guy that designed Apple TV's software is leaving. Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
Apple is losing one of the chief designers of the new Apple TV just months after the product launched to the public.
Designer Ben Keighran revealed that he is leaving the company after joining Apple four years ago when his company Chomp was purchased by Apple to inject fresh talent into Apple’s streaming box.
SOMA wants to grow its users for security reasons. Photo: SOMA
If you are unfamiliar with the messaging app SOMA, you will soon learn about them through a confrontational advertising campaign that implores people to give up on Skype, WhatsApp and Viber.
It’s for your own good, the company says.
SOMA Messenger encrypts data end-to-end and auto-deletes messages, its team declaring the app to be the most secure in the space. It also allows up to 500 people for group chats and up to four in group video or voice calls.