Best List: Trace tracker for snow sports and surfing
You can track your every mogul experience, tree run and back-scratcher with this tiny disc of a tracker attached to your skis or snowboard.
Using inertial and GPS sensors packed into a miniature hockey puck package (with all-day battery life), the Trace tracker captures all the stats you need to give you the ultimate playback of your day in the powder.
Apple Pay, Android Pay, Walmart Pay... and now Target Pay? Photo: Mike Mozart/Flickr CCApple Pay, Android Pay, Walmart Pay… and now Target Pay? Photo: Mike Mozart/Flickr CC
Target is reportedly looking to become a player in the mobile wallet game. The fourth largest retailer in the U.S. would be joining a market that’s quickly becoming pretty crowded. The next mobile payment solution on your smartphone very well could be Target Pay, though it can’t be confirmed at this time.
Apple's secretive Industrial Design Studio is on the ground floor of Infinite Loop II, one of the main buildings on the Cupertino campus.
Very few outsiders have been inside Apple’s Industrial Design Studio, the amazingly creative product lab behind the company’s blockbuster hardware.
That may change this weekend, when 60 Minutes broadcasts a tour of the design lab. Apple’s lead designer, Jony Ive, gave journalist Charlie Rose a peek at the facility earlier this year — and his report airs this Sunday.
But you can take a tour of Apple’s secret Industrial Design studio right now. A virtual one, anyway.
This mini drone manages to carry a camera, a bunch of aerial tricks, and a small price tag. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Drones of any size, especially if it carries a camera, usually mean dropping big bucks on a big bird. This miniature flier is an exception to the rule, with a built-in camera perfect for capturing aerial video and photos while fitting in the palm of your hand. It comes with a 2 gig memory card, and all for a mere $34.99.
Skitch will only be available on Mac after January 22. Screenshot: Evernote
Evernote’s efforts to streamline its business will see it chop a number of apps from its lineup, including the popular annotation app Skitch. Clearly, a browser extension for Google Chrome, is also getting the boot — as is Evernote’s Pebble app.
What we've all been watching in 2015. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
2015 brought us a souped-up Apple TV, so it’s great news that the same year yielded plenty of high-quality entertainment to watch on the fourth-generation device.
From tenured favorites like ’60s Madison Avenue masterpiece Mad Men to the arrival of smash hits like Mr. Robot, there was no shortage of great entertainment gracing our screens.
In our humble opinions, these were the best TV shows of 2015.
Apple Pay will finally arrive in China next year, and it’s going to have strong competition from day one. Just hours after Apple announced the expansion of its mobile payment service, Samsung confirmed its own will be following after it struck an almost identical deal with China UnionPay.
Just one dollar, people! Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Big savings on Apple products have meant that Best Buy is increasingly living up to its name, but today’s iPhone deal may be one of the best yet for the cash-starved.
The retailer is selling the 16GB iPhone 6s for $1, while also throwing in a $200 gift card if you trade in a working iPhone 5 as part of the deal.
A long time ago, on a streaming music service not so far away. Photo: Star Wars
If you’re already bored of playing Christmas songs on repeat, there’s some good news — since Star Wars fans can now enjoy John William’s The Force Awakens soundtrack on iTunes and Apple Music.
More than 7 out of 10 users are running iOS 9. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
71 percent of iOS users are using the latest version of the mobile operating system, according to stats released by Apple. Measured by visits to the App Store this week, the stats also show 21 percent of users are running iOS 8, while 8 percent are running previous versions of iOS.
"My Christmas bonus? It's about this much." Photo: 60 Minutes
60 Minutes viewers will get an early Christmas present this Sunday, as presenter Charlie Rose gets a rare peak inside Jony Ive’s design studio, while also receiving a tour of “Apple’s store of the future” from retail guru Angela Ahrendts.
After more than a year of calling it “top of the list” in the company’s priorities, Apple today announced that it is partnering with China UnionPay to bring Apple Pay to China, the country Tim Cook has been outspoken about calling Apple’s biggest market of the future.
Moshi's wallet case can turn chaos into magic. Photo: Traci Dauphin/Cult of Mac
Best List: Overture wallet case by Moshi
I love wallet cases. I love the convenience of carrying everything together in one place. For over a year, I’ve exclusively used Overture folio-style wallet cases by Moshi — first a Sahara Beige model, now a Steel Black one.
I love the new one even more, because black goes with everything.
This is what it sounds like when pigs fly. Photo: Warner Bros./5th Cell
Scribblenauts Unlimited, the latest version of a fun game that’s been on one device or another since 2009, is headed to mobile.
Main character and magic notebook owner Maxwell’s got a sister, Lily, who he’s gotten cursed, thanks to his smart-ass ways. The pair go to see Edwin, one of the 40 other brothers and sisters of Maxwell and Lily (go figure), and find out that doing nice things for people is the only way to earn starite, the magical cure for Lily’s curse.
With socks like these, you'll be the hit of any Netflix party. Photo: Netflix
So there you are, watching Netflix, binging on some TV series that everyone’s talking about when you suddenly fall asleep. What happens? Netflix keeps playing, running through a few more episodes while you catch some Zs.
Imagine, though, having a garment — socks, for example — that can automatically detect when you fall asleep and pause that Netflix stream for you. How great would that be?
If you’re comfortable around a pair of knitting needles as well as an Arduino mini-computer controller, some IR hardware and a soldering gun, you just might be the kind of person who should make these socks for a last-minute holiday gift.
New titles and responsibilities in management could reshape Apple. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Apple made some promotions and tweaked the responsibilities of some of its managers Thursday. Companies do it all the time without much notice or disruption to the goods and services they create.
But this is Apple. Any change in the way it does business could ultimately change our experiences with its product. That is the point behind CEO Tim Cook shifting and shoring up duties for some of his closet managers.
Badland 2, the sequel to popular game that won Apple’s iPad Game of the Year award in 2013, is now available on the App Store for iPhone and iPad.
The new fantasy adventure game comes just in time for Christmas, sending you on a wild ride through a dark alien wasteland full of flamethrowers, buzzsaws, lava, oil and more obstacles to thwart your progress.
This makes all the difference when searching for notifications. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
Like iOS, OS X has its own Notifications Center to keep you abreast of all the stuff going on in your world, from calendar events to reminders.
Unlike iOS, OS X El Capitan defaults to a date sorting system that groups all your Notifications together by the date they were triggered. That’s super handy if you’re searching for a notification you got today, but don’t remember what app it came from. If, however, you want to sort by the app the notification is coming from, or–better yet–sort by date and app, you’re in luck.
As smartwatches grow in popularity, the Apple Watch will continue to be the hands-on - or wrist-on - favorite. Photo: Apple
The Apple Watch is the hottest smartwatch on the market. And it looks like it is going to stay that way for a while.
A report by International Data Corporation says the Apple Watch will lead a rapidly growing wearables market through at least 2019 as a skeptical public gets won over by more sophisticated second- and third-generation devices.
IDC projects Apple to sell 13 million watches this year for a little more than 61 percent of the market share. The number of Apple Watches sold will reach 45.2 million by 2019, according to IDC’s report.
Finally, a selfie stick that's not completely obnoxious. Photo: Stikbox
Selfie sticks receive a lot of hate for being annoying instruments of narcissism. They’re inconvinient to carry around and can make you look just plain silly.
A brilliant new selfie stick may have solved the device’s worst problems though with a cleverly designed iPhone case that hides a telescoping 28-inch long selfie stick in the back. It looks like something Data from The Goonies would invent. And for that reason alone, I love it.
Watch out Donald Trump. If some Americans had their way, Tim Cook might be the next president of the USA.
One in three Americans think Apple would do a better job at running the the U.S. government than any politician, revealed a new study by Rbb Communications.
This two-way thumb drive adds an additional 32 gigs to your iPhone. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Your iPhone is full of amazing features, but some of the coolest things about it are sold separately. Whether it’s a skin-tight charging case you’re looking for, a keychain-sized tracking device or a foolproof way to keep your phone from dropping, we’ve got you covered.
No weights, classes or gym. The Freeletics app designs a workout program that uses your body weight. Photo: Freeletics
You have a gym membership, but you’ve talked yourself out of going. You paid for a personal trainer and found reasons to cancel.
Maybe fitness can be achieved through your smartphone or smartwatch, but the excuse that now grinds the revolution to a halt is too many apps from which to choose.
Freeletics, a workout app that made its U.S. debut earlier this month, wants to make this an easy choice. First, it invites you to join more than 7 million other users, a community, the company says, grows by more than 6,000 users a week.