Mobile menu toggle

The most popular colors for App Store icons explained

By

The Top 200 iOS app icons, charted to a color wheel.
The Top 200 iOS app icons, charted to a color wheel.
Photo: Stuart Hall / Medium

There are thousands of colors an App Store icon can be … so why does it so often look like developers only had half a box of crayons to choose from when we look at our iPhones?

But App Store iconography may be more colorful than it seems at first. Don’t believe me? These color wheels show exactly how dominant certain colors are in the icons of the most successful apps.

This app makes Android Wear look like the Apple Watch

By

this-app-makes-android-wear-look-like-the-apple-watch-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads201508Screen-Shot-2015-08-18-at-33751-PM-jpg
This app makes your Android smartwatch look like the Apple Watch. Photo: Bubble Cloud Launcher
This app makes your Android smartwatch look like the Apple Watch. Photo: Bubble Cloud Launcher

The Apple Watch doesn’t work with Android smartphones, and probably never will. That means if you’re an Android fan who loves the Apple Watch’s Bubble UI, you’ve got two choices: get an iPhone, or install this new launcher that will turn your Android smartwatch into a virtual clone of the Apple Watch’s launch screen.

Robot butler rolls out to begin life of thankless drudgery

By

Botlr hotel robot Aloft

Photo: Aloft

Guests of the boutique Aloft Silicon Valley hotel might be a little surprised to see its newest employee.

It might be his height or his odd way of moving around, or it might be the basket of towels where its head should be. But mostly, it’s going to be weird because the new guy is a robot, and that’s just inherently strange at this point in history.

Why leave? Apple Music is great right now

By

Find new music; listen to your favorites. It's that simple.
Find new music; listen to your favorites. It's that simple.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

What the hell, internet? Apple Music, for all its growing pains and glitches, is a fantastic music streaming service.

It’s free unlimited music now, cheaper unlimited music later, and Apple Music is undoubtedly going to get better, especially if you’re already tied into Apple’s ecosystem.

If you take off before the trial period ends, you’re gonna miss out.

Each state has its own fave emoji (and some of you people are weird)

By

Everybody loves emoji. Even the weird ones.
Everybody loves emoji. Even the weird ones.
Photo: Technewz

 

Emoji have quickly become the language of choice for digital natives, but when it comes to the tiny pictograms, not all emoji are used equally. To find out which areas of the United States use emoji differently, SwiftKey analyzed over 1 billion emoji used on its keyboard app between June 2014 and 2015, and came away with some interesting take aways — like the elephant emoji being most popular in Alabama, while the volcano emoji is blowing up in Maine.

Check out the map to see which is your state’s favorite emoji:

How to cure WhatsApp’s picture hoarding

By

WhatsApp

Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

WhatsApp is a pretty popular messaging app that went from 200 million daily active users in April of 2013 to 800 million of them as of April 2015.

Unlike competitor SnapChat, however, WhatsApp will save every photo and video file sent to you to your Camera Roll. This could make for some embarrassing moments when you’re swiping through your photos to show mom your latest cat pictures.

It could also start to clog up your iPhone, really, with all that racy video your friends keep sending you.

To avoid these situations, you can disable the “feature.” Here’s how.

iPad lock defeats ram-raiding thief

By

The Maclock device securing an iPad to the counter upended the plans of this thief.
The Maclock device securing an iPad to the counter upended the plans of this thief.
Photo: 7 News Melbourne

When it comes to security and tamper-resistant devices, nothing beats the testimonial of a failed burglary attempt caught on camera.

A robber, who recently rammed his truck into an Australian electronics store, hit a snag when he tried to swipe an iPad encased in a double-lock kiosk made by Maclocks. Security camera footage shows him pulling with all his might and then giving up. With time against him, he wound up leaving the store with empty display boxes.

Bring your headphone game into the 21st century [Deals]

By

The Jarv Nmotion PRO Bluetooth Earbuds represent the peak of wireless headphones.
The Jarv Nmotion PRO Bluetooth Earbuds represent the peak of wireless headphones.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

We’re long past the bad old days when we had to actually plug in headphones into our mp3 players and phones. How primitive. A sign of just how far we’ve come can be found in the Jarv Nmotion Pro Bluetooth earbuds, representing the high functionality, lasting power, and just-plain-cool factor that represents a pinnacle in wireless headphone tech. And right now they’re anything but peak price — at more that half off, you can get your own set for $29.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

New photo app is like loading old film into your iPhone

By

Base is not a photo filter app. The user must pick a style of film before shooting.
Base is not a photo filter app. The user must pick a style of film before shooting.
Photo: Stay Kids

We love our photo filter apps, especially the ones that deliver the look and quality of classic film stock. These filters will never replicate the rich tonality and texture of film, but given the cost and hassles of using it, the average person probably feels they’re not missing much.

Deepak Mantena believes we’re missing out. The creator of digital studio Stay Kids has developed an iOS photo app called Base that lets you pick from 14 different film styles before you start making pictures.

This app is everything OS X Finder wants to be

By

Commander One is the app Finder wishes it could be.
Commander One is the app Finder wishes it could be.
Photo: Eltima

Maybe it’s just me, but Finder is one of the default Mac apps I find most annoying. Even though Apple introduced tabs to the default experience a few years ago, Finder still makes it harder than it should to move files from one folder on your computer to another.

Commander One, a Finder alternative for OS X 10.9 and above, makes Finder better for power users. It adds the ability to drag and drop files between two folders displayed in side-by-side panes, not windows or tabs. But there’s more to it than just that.

Half of Apple Music subscribers stopped listening, claims survey; Apple disputes

By

Tired of Apple Music's playlists? Try something even more indie.
Apple Music needs to demonstrate that it's best in show.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

According to a survey published today, 48 percent of Apple Music listeners polled say they have given up listening to the streaming music — and the free trial isn’t even over yet.

Meanwhile, 61 percent claim they have disabled the auto-renewal option on their accounts so as not to be charged when the trial period ends in September.

All-week Apple Watch battery life could be possible due to MIT breakthrough

By

Apple Watch battery
The Apple Watch battery could last a lot longer per charge thanks to a new lithium ion advancement.
Photo: iFixIt

Despite many theoretical improvement, lithium ion batteries remain a very slowly progressing technology. Moore’s Law keeps on helping our gadgets better at conserving batteries, but the batteries themselves aren’t keeping pace with Moore’s Law when it comes to increasing capacity.

But a new innovation by a team of forgetful researchers might change all that: they’ve figured out how to quadruple a li-ion battery’s lifespan.

One of Apple’s key iPhone design patents is no longer protected

By

iPhone design
Did iPhones change the way Samsung handsets looked? Yes. Case closed. Oh wait, there are lawyers involved...
Photo: Apple/USPTO

One of Apple’s key iPhone patents has been given a non-final rejection in the still-dragging-on Apple vs. Samsung lawsuit.

The reason? According to a new report, it should never have been granted in the first place, due to an issue with prior art and apparent “obviousness.”

Google Hangouts’ slick update is all about the browser

By

google-hangouts-slick-update-is-all-about-the-browser-2-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads201508startPageLaunch-jpg
Yet another way to access Google Hangouts. Photo: Jordanna Chord/Google
Yet another way to access Google Hangouts. Photo: Jordanna Chord/Google

Google’s chat and video messaging service, Hangouts, got a whole new standalone web app on Monday afternoon.

“We are launching another way to use Hangouts today,” writes Google’s Jordanna Chord on Google Plus. “From our new site you’ll be able to take advantage of the best of Hangouts in the browser, along with an inspiring image to get you through the day.”

Now you’ll be able to keep in touch with all your Hangouts-using buddies in any web broswer, including Safari, without having to run Gmail or Google Plus (or the Chrome app).

Slack boss calls Siri ‘f—ing idiotic’

By

Apple Watch notifications siri
Do you hear that, Apple Watch? Your primary interface is a fool!
Photo: Apple

We have a bit of a digital-assistant war brewing in the tech world. In addition to Apple’s Siri, we have Google Now, Microsoft’s Cortana and, eventually, Facebook’s MoneyPenny. Everybody’s out to provide users with the most helpful fake secretaries imaginable, and even productivity app Slack is getting in on the action.

But while touting upcoming improvements to the chat platform’s helper, Slackbot, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield had some strong words about its rival in your iPhone or Apple Watch.