The Worldwide Developers Conference brings new opportunities and new threats for indie developers. If you’re lucky, Apple introduces an API that could enhance your app. If you’re unlucky, Apple launches a new feature that renders your app obsolete.
One thing is certain: Whatever Apple announces at the annual conference will mean a lot more work for indie developers just to stay in the game. And since developers can’t charge for updates on the App Store, most of that work will go unrewarded.
The Apple Watch’s heart-rate monitor is pretty damned cool, but it’s the one piece of the new smartwatch that’s seeing the most updates and tweaks since the hardware launched seven weeks ago.
A new patent suggests that Apple has even more changes in store for the health tech.
Gamers aren’t turning to magazines — or even websites — as much as they used to. These days, you’re more likely to find them on YouTube or Twitch to watch Let’s Play videos, Minecraft machinima, or streaming League of Legends matches. It’s a bold new world, and YouTube wants to capture a little more of the video gaming market with its new YouTube Gaming site, which will also have its very own app for mobile devices and gamers on the go.
Everything YouTube gaming related will show up in this new space; now when you search for “Call” on YouTube Gaming, you can be sure that you’ll get Call of Duty videos only, and not “Call Me Maybe” music videos (as if that’s a bad thing).
Now that Apple’s annual developer conference is over, we’ve got the skinny on all the news coming out of the WWDC this year. From a thorough wrap-up of the keynote to in-depth looks at iOS 9, OS X El Capitan, the new watchOS 2, and the exciting Apple Music, we’re here to fill your weekly digital magazine to overflowing.
Get Cult of Mac Magazine now, and soak in Cult of Mac’s smart, informed, and sometimes a little snarky take on all the info from WWDC 2015.
The Apple Watch just launched seven weeks ago, but people are already speculating what the next generation of wearables is going to look like.
And some early reports say that Apple’s sticking with LG to make displays for the Apple Watch 2.
Why is Leander super-excited about Apple’s new Beats 1 radio service?
It’s simple, really: For him, listening to BBC Radio 1 was possibly the greatest thing about growing up in England in the ’70s. More importantly, it’s still how he discovers loads of new music today — and Apple’s 24/7 live internet radio station promises that same kind of magic.
Get the lowdown in the latest Kahney’s Korner video.
The Apple Watch isn’t available in Indonesia yet, but that isn’t stopping fans there from buying them.
One man was so interested in the new wearable that he traded a scooter valued at over $1,000 to get his hands on Apple’s smartwatch.
Apple unveiled the next generation of iOS this week, and while many of us here in the US are stoked about features like Power Save Mode, smarter Siri search, and improved Maps, users in China are getting excited about one new feature that went virtually unmentioned: VPN.
In an effort to prevent rivals from stealing its ideas, Apple patents everything it invents — from the iPhone and the iPad, to app icons and even “magic” tactile gloves. But compared to its biggest competitors, Apple’s patent portfolio from 2015 looks surprisingly bare.
Microsoft, Sony, Google, and LG have all outrank Apple in the patent department this year, while arch rival Samsung has absolutely crushed it.
If you carry more than a couple of keys, chances are you’ve been driven just a little crazy by the jingling and extra bulk in your pockets on more than one occasion. Sound familiar? Then you’ll love this solution—the KeySmart 2.0 organizer.
Trying to hold your iPhone like you once did a camera can feel awkward. It’s not designed to fit the hands the same way. A selfie stick can free your hands, but can also get you thrown out of a lot of places.
A photographer has come up with a simple device to give you the grip you need with the shooting range of a selfie stick with no danger of impaling others around you.
Grip Dat is a handle with a tilting smartphone bracket. On the grip’s thumb rest is a Bluetooth-enabled shutter release. The gripper can take a quick selfie or detach the base from the grip to take in more of the scene to snap pictures or record video from as far away as 30 feet.
Cult of Mac is at WWDC and AltConf, fishing for ProTips. The world’s biggest gathering of Apple developers is a rich hunting ground filled with alpha geeks, experts par excellence. What’s a ProTip? A ProTip is a nugget of knowledge, a little bit of expertise from someone in the know — a pro.
SAN FRANCISCO — Designers can be a picky bunch, always ready to pick apart a colleague’s creation or slap down an idea with some withering snark.
But interaction designer Dave Wiskus is prescribing an attitude adjustment for his fellow creative types, especially those who seem to be engaged in some sort of bitchy competition to come off as the smartest person in the room.
“Just say no to cynicism,” he said Thursday during his talk at AltConf here. “It’s the enemy of everything.” (You’ll also want to avoid irony, sarcasm and passive aggression, which Wiskus called “gateway drugs” that can lead to full-on cynical addiction.)
SAN FRANCISCO — If you watched the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote earlier this week, you’d think it was a big love fest. But there’s a section of the audience sitting there in a cold, cold sweat.
Attendees are mostly software developers, and some of them are very nervous that Apple will announce something that will ruin their business overnight.
“The WWDC keynote is terrifying for developers,” said Josh Michaels, an independent software developer from Portland, Oregon, who runs Jetson Creative. “The uncertainty is the worst part.”
Take ReplayKit in iOS 9, a new feature that records games and app videos without the need for any external cameras or hardware.
Sounds great, unless you are Everyplay or Kamkord, a pair of young companies that raised millions of dollars to record games and app videos in iOS.
“They’re f**ked!” said a game developer at WWDC who asked not to be named.
Twitter head Dick Costolo will step down as company CEO, effective July 1. Co-founder Jack Dorsey will replace him while the company finds new leadership.
This is pretty huge news for the microblogging site, but you almost wouldn’t know that from reading Twitter.
“Why did I want to direct the WWDC opening number?” asks comedian Bill Hader in the video that opened Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday morning. “Good question. You know, I think I’ve always been attracted to risk, you know?”
Then the production assistant comes to get Hader’s character, “David LeGary,” from his dressing room, and we find out that the pretentious “genius” has just been talking to himself. What follows is an over-the-top rehearsal of a Hollywood-like awards show, full of funny cameos and goofy dialogue. Check it out.
Mobile games — especially those with a multiplayer component — are making more money than traditional handheld games, says a new report by mobile analytics agency, App Annie. The company partnered with the International Data Corporation to show the growth in mobile gaming over the past year, and how it’s skews toward mobile and multiplayer gaming.
Poor console makers; they hardly knew what hit them. While they still have life in them, and the games tend to be deeper and of a higher quality, it seems as if most gamers would rather just play on the device they already have with them; their iPhone or iPad.
Your iPhone makes a compelling case to never buy another camera. But Sony seems to understand that the better you get with your photography, the more you will learn that the camera in a smartphone has limitations.
So when you are ready to try a more sophisticated tool, Sony will be waiting with its new RX100 IV.
Don’t let the size, weight and look fool you into thinking this is just another point-and-shoot. Some of the specs in this tiny box rival those of a professional-grade DSLR.
Apple unleashed a ton of new software features for iPad on developers this week with the release of iOS 9’s first beta, but not all the features were covered during the two hour keynote that kicked off WWDC, including the news that the iPad’s awesome new two finger trackpad gesture is also coming to iPhones too.
The new gesture allows iOS users to turn their keyboard into a trackpad by simply tapping it with two fingers. It’s going to make working on the iPad way easier, and let you move the cursor on the iPhone too.
Here’s what it looks like on iPhone:
Virtual reality had its coming out party Thursday morning with a live-stream presentation from the Oculus Rift team. VR is coming ever closer to becoming a true platform, with games that you can stream from Xbox and PC as well as those that will run directly on the Rift itself.
VR is a fledgeling technology with its share of quirks, even though it’s been a topic in computer science and gaming circles for decades. Just like Star Trek’s holodeck, we’ve all wanted to immerse ourselves in our gaming and fantasy environments and VR holds that promise. With early reports of nausea and other motion issues, the newly-improved devices have a lot to make up for.
The Oculus team is hard at work at doing just that, with improvements to both the hardware and software to ensure a fun, comfortable experience for most gamers.
We’ve all had terrible neighbors who throw loud parties that last all night, even on Mondays. Party Hard, an upcoming game for iOS, is about bringing those annoying gatherings to a halt. With a knife.
Developer Pinokl Games has released a new trailer for its “third-person urban conflict simulator” ahead of the Electronics Entertainment Expo trade show next week, and you can check it out below.
Apple is opening up its seventh store in New York City this weekend in the Upper East Side, right as its most iconic store on Fifth Ave prepares to undergo major renovations.
According to Apple Senior VP Angela Ahrendts, the company plans to renovate about 20 existing stores in the U.S., including ones on Fifth Avenue and San Francisco’s Union Square, due to the stores outgrowing their space.
Uber, the disruptive (and controversial) ride-sharing service, has a real problem. If you want to corner the market on the backs of a global workforce of what are essentially freelancers, how do you ensure that they all know how to use your system? And, more importantly, how do you replenish your supply of willing Uber drivers.
The San Fransisco company thinks that a video game may be the answer. Called UberDrive, it will be available on the App Store for anyone who wants to take a virtual trip as an Uber driver.
“UberDRIVE is a compelling representation of what it’s like to be an Uber driver-partner on the platform,” said Mike Truong, a senior product manager at Uber, in a statement. “Through the course of playing the game you can get a sense of how much money you can make using your own car and driving on your own time. With the sign-up flow embedded directly into the game it makes it really easy to start the sign-up and screening process right then and there.”
Google made it even easier to select images photos in its new Google Photos app by giving users a simple drag gesture. It works so well, in fact, that Apple stole it for iOS 9.
Developers have been busy combing through the first iOS 9 beta for clues about upcoming Apple services, but in the lastest iOS 8.4 beta that was also seeded to developers earlier this week, the first signs of the Apple Music streaming service have started popping up (literally).
Some iOS 8.4 beta testers have received pop-up notifications in the old Music app. The introductory prompts reveal how Apple plans to get iOS users to sign up for the new service, either on an individual plan or family plan.
Here’s signup screen users will be greeted by:
Apple supplier Foxconn has come under fire over the last few years for its factories’ working conditions in China, but the company is now making plans to open up a new Apple plant in one of the world’s other booming nations: India.