This is where Cult of Mac's videos get edited. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Want a sneak peek behind the scenes of Cult of Mac? In my tech-setup tour video below, I’ll show you where I produce and edit all the videos for the site, and what kind of equipment I use to do it.
This is one of the most-requested videos I’ve had so far, so I won’t keep you waiting any longer — let’s get to it.
Have an 'appy weekend. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
From undersea virtual reality to a great Mac Instagram client, there have been plenty of interesting apps that have hit the App Store in the past seven days. But which ones to download this weekend?
Thankfully, Cult of Mac is here to help guide you through the best apps of the week. Check below to see our picks:
Drive Genius 4 can keep your drive healthy, repair it when it's sick, and even revive it when it dies. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Our computers live and die by their hard drives, so it’s important to stay on top of their health. Drive Genius 4 is one of the best ways to keep your hard drive tuned, healthy, and even to bring it back from the dead if it crashes. Right now it’s going for almost half off, just $49.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.
Apple Watch can help improve your race time (but watch where you're going!) Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac
With Autumn rapidly approaching, marathon season is almost upon us. So if you’re planning on running a race, now’s the time to ramp up your training.
Whether you are doing a full marathon, a half-marathon or a 10K race, here are my top 10 tips for using your Apple Watch to achieve a new personal best.
What's headed our way, Apple fans? Cover: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac
It’s another week ending, which means its time for us to round up all the great content from Cult of Mac into one delightful Cult of Mac Magazine.
We’ve got all the info we could find out about the upcoming Apple event at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in SF, a ton of useful and hidden tips for iOS, Apple Watch (and even OS X), and some fantastic gaming new that you don’t want to miss.
This may be the iPhone of furniture. Photo: Campaign
Here’s good news for anyone who has had to carry a heavy couch up or down several flights of stairs and/or through narrow doorways: You can now pre-order a sofa that will fit into easily portable boxes.
This is Campaign furniture, and the company’s head is Brad Sewell, a former supply base engineer for Apple who worked with the iPod and iPhone manufacturing design team and clearly picked up a few tips while he was there. And right away, the company is taking on the big names in affordable home furniture.
Modern game, retro look. Does FOX know about these Zenos? Photo: Squishy Games
Upcoming sci-fi shooter Rogue Invader looks like a massive HyperCard stack in glorious motion. Currently on Kickstarter to fund the last bit of development, the roguelike game is the brainchild of Squishy Games founder Nathan Rees, who’s been making games ever since he discovered the joys of MacPaint as a kid.
Apple's doing great under Tim Cook... or is it? Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
If you ignore its share price, Apple is doing incredibly well under Tim Cook, thanks in large part to the success of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. But its newest offerings, Apple Watch and Apple Music, may be off to rocky starts.
This leads us to ask, once again, whether Apple has lost its spark without Steve Jobs. Is the company as exciting or as innovative under Cook? If Apple Watch can’t get us all to wear smartwatches and Apple Music doesn’t put Spotify out of business, does Apple have what it takes to revolutionize another industry?
Join us as we battle it out over those questions in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac.
Cult of Mac is proud of its new magazine app on iTunes. Photo: Cult of Mac/YouTube
I am super-psyched to introduce you to a new app coming soon to iOS: the Cult of Mac Magazine app.
The new version of our magazine app will be published every Saturday. I think it’s a really great way to read all the stuff we publish here during the week.
The boomBOTTLE+ is a take-in-any-weather portable Bluetooth speaker. Photo: SCOSCHE Industries
Don’t let the bottle in the name fool you. The boomBOTTLE+ by SCOSCHE Industries is no place for a beverage. But your ears will quickly realize it is filled with sound.
The boomBOTTLE, rolled out today on the SCOSCHE website, is a portable Bluetooth speaker that has the height and girth of the common water bottle, thus fitting in a drink holder on a bike, boat or camping chair.
Will the new Apple TV have exclusive shows and movies? Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Apple’s big event on September 9th is expected to include the unveiling of a redesigned Apple TV, but if you were hoping to get a taste of the company’s long rumored over-the-top TV subscription service, you’ll have to wait a little while longer.
Negotiations between Apple and content providers have stalled according to a new report that claims the economics of the subscription TV service remain a sticking point between Apple’s and its partners. The price Apple wants to charge consumers would be much higher than a subscription to HBO Go, Hulu, Netflix or Sling, but that’s still not enough for content makers who are asking for more cash.
A pay-what-you-want bundle full of tools and resources for easily upgrading your UI and UX game Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
If you’re trying to attract viewers, readers, or users, you’d better present a user experience that looks and feels great. We’ve found a bundle of tools and resources that can bring you closer to the user experience you want, for whatever you’re willing to pay. From graphics and textures to image masking software and website templates, give your projects an upgrade with this pay-what-you-want bundle at Cult of Mac Deals.
This giant Pacific octopus didn't want to let go after meeting a new visitor. Photo: BBC/YouTube
Who knew watching a guy get a bunch of hickeys would make interesting television?
When the affection comes from a giant Pacific octopus, you can’t help but be a little jealous of Matt Baker, a presenter for the BBC’s new Big Blue Live series.
The Spyder PowerShadow battery case is available for iPhone 5 and 6, with a model for the 6 Plus due in September. Photo: Spyder
It may be a while before we see those long-lasting hydrogen-powered batteries in our iPhones. In the meantime, the options are bulky: pack your charging cord, carry a battery charger or go the power case route.
For those who don’t like the thickness or extra heft of power cases, Spyder has just introduced a new battery case weighing in at 3 oz and measuring a relatively thin 12.5 mm.
Google relies on ads for its revenue, which is why it’s no surprise that it’s undermining Apple by telling developers how to bypass some of the security settings Apple is implementing with iOS 9.
The App Transport Security (ATS) settings requires content which arrives on your iPhone to use the “https” encryption settings — making sure that third parties can’t track what users are doing on their iPhones.
Apple is helping develop stretchable electronics for the U.S. military. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures/Cult of Mac
Apple is one of several companies and organizations teaming up with the Pentagon to develop high-tech wearables for the U.S. military.
The goal of the $171 million project? To develop stretchable electronics that can worn by soldiers, and eventually used for real-time monitoring of the structural integrity of ships and warplanes.
A newly leaked photo appearing to show the next-gen iPhone’s user information sheet demonstrates that the 16GB base model will remain for at least one more year.
Fassbender doesn't think looking like Steve Jobs is particularly important. Photo: Universal Pictures
One of the biggest criticisms of the upcoming Steve Jobs movie is that actor Michael Fassbender looks nothing like Jobs. In a new interview, Fassbender acknowledges the lack of resemblance, but says that making himself into a Steve lookalike was never part of the goal.
“We decided that I didn’t look anything like [Jobs], and that we weren’t going to try to make me look anything like him,” Fassbender says. “We just wanted to try to encapsulate the spirit and make our own thing of it.”
Apple Support has a few areas it could improve on. Photo: Apple
High quality products aside, Apple’s customer service has always been one of the company’s best assets.
That asset took a tumble in Q2, however, according to a new StellaService report which suggests that Apple’s customer service has gotten worse over recent months.
The beat goes on, but one of Apple Music's key execs won't be part of it. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
In a surprising move, Apple Music senior director Ian Rogers has left Apple — just two months after the new streaming service was launched.
Rogers was key in shaping Apple’s online radio strategy, leading to the launch of Beats 1. Prior to joining Apple in August 2014, he worked as CEO at Beats Music.
The Alarm Clock app is in there somewhere ... Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
We love how easy it is to set up an alarm from the Apple Watch. All you have to do is say, “Hey Siri, wake me up at 7 a.m.,” and the digital assistant will put that order in for you.
But this comes a slight inconvenience: What happens to alarms after you’re done using them? Well, if you’re like me, you just turn them off to stop the horrendous buzzing on your wrist and then forget about them. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Here’s how to clear off all of those old, unused alarms with a quickness.
Turn-based combat and city building action. Photo: Scopely
Hey, check it out — another free-to-play game with typical energy mechanics and city building aspects that will be familiar to anyone who’s played a similar build and battle game in the last year or so.
Unlike the other games, however, this one is set in Robert Kirkman’s award-winning comic book series. Titled The Walking Dead: Road to Survival, it’s set in the fortified town of Woodbury just prior to The Governor’s arrival. Fans of the story might enjoy messing about in the universe, especially with the fantastic, comic book-style art that infuses this whole project with an authentic zombie-apocalypes feel.
Check out the gameplay video below to see what I mean.
The nondescript exterior of the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium doesn't give an inkling what Apple's up to inside. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
SAN FRANCISCO — Just how big is Apple’s next product reveal going to be? All signs point to it being a massive blowout of an event — far bigger than the standard iPhone “s” upgrade the world is expecting.
The latest update to Dropzone makes it even more useful. Photo: Aptonic
This post is brought to you by Aptonic Limited, maker of Dropzone.
Drag-and-drop functionality — which lets us quickly and easily move files from place to place, into apps, onto websites — might be the most fundamental way we interact with our computers. That’s why we’re impressed by Dropzone: It’s basically an upgrade of good ol’ drag-and-drop for OS X.
Apple will host its fall media reveal at the same place it unveiled the Apple II computer. Photo: StadiumUSA
When Apple takes the stage at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco for the fall media reveal, company execs will walk knowing they are in a sacred space.
Sure the building is 100 years old this year and is part of the city’s renaissance following the devastating 1906 earthquake. But the ground at the auditorium really shook in 1977, when Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak brought the Apple II computer to the West Coast Computer Faire.