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The fitness apps that gave me six-pack abs

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iMuscle's anatomical models look a bit leaner than I had in mind.
iMuscle's anatomical models look a bit leaner than I had in mind.
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

I saw my six pack for the first time at the age of 40. Prior to that, my abs had been hidden behind a thick layer of fat that I’d built up over years of living a sedentary geek lifestyle. The only exercise I got was racing to be first in line at the Apple Store for a product launch.

Then one day, a doctor told me I had cancer and my whole world changed. There’s nothing like a brush with death to make you take your health more seriously. Suddenly, I wanted to get fit, but true to my geek heritage, I would do it using my iPhone. Abs? There must be an app for that.

Great WWDC expectations, HomeKit’s killer app, our Facebook nightmare plus more

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More Apple coverage than you can shake a selfie stick at.
More Apple coverage than you can shake a selfie stick at.
Cover: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac

Download the latest Cult of Mac Magazine to find out what we’re all expecting from next week’s WWDC 2015, why we’re waiting for HomeKit’s killer app, what Kahney’s Korner has to say about the big Jony Ive promotion, a bit on our epic journey from hacked Facebook page to recovery, and check out an ‘Apple Watch Song’ fanboy anthem for the ages.

All that, plus product reviews, helpful tips, and more in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine.

Tumblr responds to Ask Me Anything by ripping it off

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Answer Time Tumblr
Here are some of the subjects coming to Tumblr's Answer Time. They maybe could have found a better picture of Vic Mensa.
Photo: Tumblr

Tumblr has come up with its own version of Reddit’s popular Ask Me Anything (AMA) interview series.

The new feature, called Answer Time, will let users ask anything they want of musicians, actors, activists, and other celebrities, with the replies appearing on the subject’s Tumblr page.

Quit your whining: Pebble Time app is finally here

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Apple's delay may mean no Pebble Time for iPhone users.
Apple's delay may mean no Pebble Time for iPhone users.
Photo: Pebble

Pebble Watch fans have been absolutely freaking out on Twitter the last few days due to a delay with the Pebble Time app for iOS getting delayed in the App Store approval process.

After sitting in ‘pending approval’ since May 22nd, Pebble fans rallied around the #FreeOurPebbleTime hashtag to get their voices heard by Apple, but everyone can stop their whining, because the Pebble Time app for iPhone is finally available for download.

Dazzling drone video will get you tilting at windmills

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Windmills, especialy the ones near the Zaanse schans, look pretty when filmed from a drone.
Windmills, especialy the ones near the Zaanse schans, look pretty when filmed from a drone.
Photo: Voormedia/YouTube

To fly a drone, it can’t be too windy. But a windmill looks its best when wind is spinning its sails.

So the filmmakers at Voormedia in the Netherlands had to be patient for a perfect, cooperative wind — and they were rewarded on a recent sunny afternoon, filming the beautiful windmills near the Zaanse schans from the DJI Inspire drone.

Apple plans to kill its 70/30 split for in-app subscriptions

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Apple wants to make its devices more appealing to media companies.
Apple wants to make its devices more appealing to content creators.
Photo: Apple

Apple and Google boasted that they paid over $17 billion to app developers over the last year. What they left out is that they also made a tidy $7.3 billion off those sales, thanks to the 30/70 split pioneered by Steve Jobs with the launch of iTunes in 2003.

That split could coming to an end soon, though, according to a new report claiming Apple plans to make a departure from its old pricing formula in an effort to make Cupertino’s devices more appealing to media companies.

Words With Friends gets new bestie: Apple Watch

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Get your Words With Friends game on with the new Apple Watch update.
Get your Words With Friends game on with the new Apple Watch update.
Photo: Zynga

If you’re one of those word game fiends that has a list of Words With Friends games as long as your arm, you now can actually use that long arm to wear your games on your wrist.

Zynga just updated its hugely popular Words With Friends app to include Apple Watch features, so you never have to go another second without knowing when it’s your turn to spell “ZA” or “MUZJIKS” for the win.

App Store vs. Google Play: What’s hot and what’s not?

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It's that time of the week again! Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
It's that time of the week again! Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

When you’re choosing between Android and iOS, you also have to choose between the App Store and Google Play; apps are so important to us these days that they must come into consideration when we’re buying new mobile devices.

Friday-Night-Fights-bug-2Android has caught up with and even overtaken the App Store in sheer number of apps, but Apple’s marketplace continues to rake in lots more revenue. But which offers better titles, a greater user experience, and more features?

In this week’s Friday Night Fight with Cult of Android versus Cult of Mac, we pit the App Store against Google Play to find out which is the best mobile marketplace.

Pixelated pictures? Eliminating noise takes just one click

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Macphun's new software, Noiseless, makes removing the pixel distortion known as noise easy.
Macphun's new software, Noiseless, makes removing the pixel distortion known as noise easy.
Photo: David Pierini/Cult of Mac

You don’t need a formal photography education to make a pretty good snap. But sometimes, it would be nice to have a simple fix for a technical challenge without requiring a textbook or expensive software.

Take noise. In non-scientific terms, it’s the appearance that your pictures were taken in a sandstorm. It generally happens when you are shooting in low light. Lots of microscopic bits of colorful grain across your images.

The team at Macphun has created new software for Mac users with a series of simple sliders that let you take noise out of your photos. The aptly named Noiseless can have photos looking better with just a couple of intuitive steps.

Only half of top 100 retailers will accept Apple Pay by end of 2015

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Apple in talks to bring Apple Pay to Israel
Is 2015 really the year of Apple Pay?
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

During his January conference call with investors, Tim Cook said that 2015 would be ‘the year of Apple Pay’, and while Apple’s mobile wallet has already leapfrogged rivals like Google Wallet, a new survey of the top 100 retailers in the country found that Apple Pay still faces a long uphill battle.

Kahney’s Korner: Why Jony Ive’s promotion is fantastic news for Apple

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Far from an exit strategy, Jony Ive's promotion means more great design for Apple.
Far from an exit strategy, Jony Ive's promotion means more great design for Apple.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Can’t Apple’s design guru catch a break? After Jony Ive received a well-deserved promotion to become Apple’s chief design officer, some pundits misinterpreted the happy news as a bad omen.

Our own Leander Kahney reads the tea leaves completely differently: Ive’s promotion is nothing but good news for Apple.

Save up to 77% and secure your online activity with 3 amazing VPN offers [Deals]

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cm-vpunlimited

Here at Cult of Mac Deals, we rely on VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) for ensuring that our online activity stays private, browsing securely even on public Wi-Fi, and accessing any app or video no matter where we are in the world. To that end, we’ve put together a collection of deals on some of our favorite ones. Keep reading to see which ones get our stamp of approval, and save up to 77%.

Kaleidoscopic banners tout WWDC as ‘epicenter of change’

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IMG_0628
The Moscone Center is ready for WWDC.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

We’re just three days away from Tim Cook and the gang taking over San Francisco’s Moscone Center for this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference. Preparations for the big event have been underway all week, but crews are starting to wrap up pre-production — and the final WWDC 2015 banners are being unfurled.

Take a look:

Eddy Cue gives LeBron the business during NBA Finals

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Eddy Cue isn't cheering for Lebron this year.
Eddy Cue isn't cheering for Lebron this year.
Photo: USA Today

The NBA Finals started last night, with LeBron James taking to the court in search of yet another championship ring. His team is taking on the Silicon Valley Golden State Warriors and, while Apple Senior VP Eddy Cue was all too happy to cheer on LeBron during the last two NBA championships, this year he’s defected to the home team — and giving King James hell.

Apple’s music streaming negotiations come down to the wire

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Apple has big ambitions for its new music streaming service.
Will Beats redesign be ready for WWDC? Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple is planning to use WWDC to spotlight the new streaming music service its been working on for year. It could be Apple’s biggest play in the music industry since the launch of iTunes, but according to a new report, Apple is still struggling to ink its deal with record labels.

Apple Store customers can kiss subsidized AT&T iPhones goodbye

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iPhone-6-Plus-cam
The next iPhone is getting some big upgrades.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Looking to buy a new iPhone 6 or 6 Plus from Apple on AT&T but don’t want to sign up for the carrier’s Next plan? Too damn bad.

Just days after AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega promised subsidized phones are going away, the company has completely removed subsidized options for the iPhone from the Apple Store as well.

AltConf makes WWDC look like a stuffy college lecture

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Jeff Kelley AltConf 2014
There really is a good reason that AltConf 2014 looked like Jurassic Park.
Photo: AltConf

You’ve probably heard — repeatedly, from us — that Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is happening in San Francisco next week. But that’s not the only show in town. The Alternative Developer Conference, aka AltConf, is running at the same time, right around the corner from the Moscone Center at the AMC Metreon.

It’s a more open and accessible convention than Apple’s, and that’s not just because it’s free.

“Alt has great information, but it has a lot more community feel where it’s not getting talked down to from the lectern and Apple, you’re getting talked to by your peers,” Jeff Kelley, iOS developer for Detroit Labs and author of Developing for Apple Watch, told Cult of Mac. “And everybody there is kind of on the same foot. Especially because it’s free. You can pay to get a reserved ticket this year, but you don’t have to pay to get in. Everybody is there because they love this stuff.”

‘Apple Watch Song’ turns angst into an earful of laughs (and a wrist full of cancer)

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Angsty Apple geeks everywhere can sing along to the
Angsty Apple geeks everywhere can sing along to the "Apple Watch Song."
Photo: Matthew Patrick Davis

A manic new music video called “Apple Watch Song” turns all the anticipation and angst surrounding the hit wearable into a geeky anthem for Apple fans awaiting delivery of their precious wrist gadgets.

From the Apple Watch Edition’s exorbitant price tag to the fabricated health scare of “cancer wrist,” the wacky song turns the dreams and doubts about Apple’s smartwatch into a cavalcade of comedic riffs.

Apple lawyers ban AltConf from streaming WWDC keynote

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It's beginning to look a lot like WWDC at Moscone Center in San Francisco.
It's beginning to look a lot like WWDC at Moscone Center in San Francisco.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Ahead of WWDC 2015, Apple’s lawyers have demanded AltConf organizers refrain from streaming or displaying any video or display any video content from WWDC. As a result, the conference has decided to cancel its annual viewing of the Keynote and State of the Union stream on Monday that has been a staple of the event for the past few years.

In a letter to AltConf, Apple’s lawyers maintain that the company has the right to “exercises control over not only the content of its messaging, but also the manner in which those messages are packaged, distributed and delivered,” and that the AltConf’s big party of developers watching the keynote together “would strip Apple of exclusive control over one of the most anticipated events of the year, and could deprive Apple of potential revenue generated from its exclusive rights.”