Apple seeded the fourth iOS 8.4 beta to developers yesterday, and while the company didn’t add any major new features, it appears that they’ve squashed iMessage’s biggest bug that caused iPhones and iPads to crash when they received a certain string of unicode characters.
SAN FRANCISCO — Game developer Brianna Wu’s life became the inspiration for an episode of the hit cop show, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
While she was kinda flattered, she wasn’t entirely pleased. To get Law & Order: SVU‘s attention, your life has to be messed up one way or the other.
“There’s no good way to be on Law and Order,” she joked.
Jon Bernthal (AMC’s The Walking Dead) is joining the cast of Netflix-exclusive superhero series Daredevil for the hit show’s second season.
And even better: He’s playing Frank Castle, better known as The Punisher.
“You’ve got a secret,” says Naomie Harris’ Miss Moneypenny in the new TV spot for upcoming Bond film SPECTRE. “Something you can’t tell anyone because you don’t trust anyone.”
Daniel Craig is back in a new Bond film, this one named after the fictional spy syndicate that figured heavily in the Ian Fleming novels and debuted in the film Dr. No in 1962.
Here’s a full trailer full of the things you’ve come to associate with James Bond, including explosions, intrigue, and plenty of women. Bond is such a slut, right?
Jim Cramer, host of CNBC financial-advice show Mad Money, is a fan of the Apple Watch, but it doesn’t seem to be enough for him.
The boisterous host has recently introduced an interesting companion for his wearable, which he has been sporting on his show for a few weeks.
The next wave of iOS devices could sport some huge improvements to their front-facing camera, according to referrences found in iOS 9 that hints to the upcoming devices.
It’s been rumored for months that the iPhone’s rear camera could be in for a big upgrade, but the new FaceTime camera could get a panoramic capture mode (think of the selfie possibilities), 240p video and more.
When we have a big giveaway, we like to go really big. Like 14.7 million pixels big. Yep, we’re giving away the 27-inch 5K Retina iMac at Cult of Mac Deals.
Apple is planning to open up mobile Safari to “Content Blockers,” according to a new features discovered in the iOS 9 beta. The change could pave the way for ad blocking extensions, which prevent images, popups, and other content from loading as you browse the web.
Apple Music may come with a long list of advantages over rivals like Spotify — such as real radio and a super-affordable family plan — but there’s one thing it’s lagging behind on, and that’s music quality… or so it seems.
The highest bitrate Apple Music will offer is 256 kbps, which is lower than the 320 kbps offered by Spotify, Rdio, Tidal, and Apple’s own Beats Music service.
A post on Apple’s site for its Maps app heavily suggests that it’s hard at work on a feature to rival Google’s Street View, which lets users zoom into maps to explore areas from ground level. The company hasn’t officially announced that that is what it’s doing with those camera vans, but we’re running increasingly low on alternative theories.
During Monday’s introduction of Apple Music at the Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple said “over 100 countries” will have access to its music-streaming/social/radio platform when it launches June 30. But it didn’t say which countries those would be.
We’ve done some investigating, and we’re pretty sure we’ve got a good idea of who’s definitely getting their dance on. Check out our map below.
Apple’s two-hours-plus keynote at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) this week was packed with new and exciting information about the future of software for its current major hardware. But we couldn’t help but notice some things that were missing.
Here are some of the ways Apple’s presentation left us hanging this year.
SAN FRANCISCO — The key to crafting great Apple Watch apps can be summed up with a simple mantra: “Make the user happy.”
That’s designer Joe Cieplinski’s approach to all design, really, but the precept is even more important than ever for developers making apps for Apple’s new wearable. Instead of attempting to cram all the features of an iPhone app onto that tiny screen, devs need to focus as much on what they leave out as what they include.
“That’s how you get a successful product,” Cieplinski, who works for Philadelphia-based Bombing Brain Interactive, told Cult of Mac after his AltConf panel here Tuesday. “It’s not just trying to be philosophical.”
Why does the latest iPhone still ship with just 16GB of storage as standard? Why does the new MacBook have only one USB port? Why does Apple make devices thinner and thinner rather than adding bigger batteries?
At Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco this week, marketing chief Phil Schiller sat down with The Talk Show to address some of these questions.
If you’ve got an Apple developer account and a Mac, you might want to instal the latest OS X 10.11, better known as El Capitan, onto your machine right now.
Until it’s out of beta, though, you might want to consider installing it on a second partition of your Macintosh, in case things get wonky. It is a beta, after all, and you should never rely on a beta for a mission-critical device.
If you’re un-daunted still, here’s how to install El Capitan safely onto another partition on your Mac to try it out without nuking your current install of Yosemite.
Jonathan Mann is the Song a Day creator who’s (so far) written and recorded 2,350 songs (including this one) for his YouTube channel. He’s an Apple fan, of course, and many of his songs have to do with the Cupertino-based tech company.
Mann set up his Macbook and guitar across the street from the Moscone Center and recorded this latest tune live on the sidewalk, and it’s all about the Monday’s developer keynote.
“Not one but (count ’em) two,” he sings, “women up on the stage. It’s a start, and it’s about time ’cause these white dad jokes they’re starting to fade.”
Check it out.
Selfie sticks are quite possibly the worst thing mankind has ever invented. They’re annoying, long, and narcissistic and you can’t go to a concert, museum, landmark, or pretty much anywhere else in public without running into fifty dudes trying to wrangle their piece of metal into the perfect pic.
Luckily, some brilliant designers have devised a cool solution that lets you get nice photos of yourself, without annoying everyone around you.
Check it out:
Developers are churning out the Apple Watch apps way faster than the first wave of iPhone apps that launched with the App Store. According to new data provided by App Annie to Cult of Mac, the number of Apple Watch apps has double since the device debuted on April 22nd.
Popcorn Time is an open source app for Mac that allows users to stream movies from bit torrent sites that have ripped movies on them.
The tech made a huge splash, but is now sadly defunct, even while its creators still proclaim that the technology is legal.
However, some other folks thought the technology was perfect to help us all with another internet activity that a whole bunch of us still enjoy: porn.
Porn Time, based on the same code as Popcorn Time, is now available for Mac, Windows and Linux, so grab a towel and check it out.
Online auction site eBay has updated its iOS app to include Apple Watch functionality.
Now, sellers and bidders can keep an eye on their transactions wherever they are.
Apple is ramping up security on iOS 9 and it’s going to take a little extra memorization on your part.
Anyone with an iPhone or iPad that has Touch ID will be required to update to a new 6 digit PIN when the new operating system is released this fall, according to Apple’s website.
Apple just unveiled the future of OS X with the developer preview of El Capitan, but it’s still trying to squash some bugs in El Yosemite with the fifth beta of OS X 10.10.4.
Apple may have announced iOS 9 at WWDC yesterday, but it hasn’t forgotten about its iOS 8.4 beta. A fourth release is now available to developers ahead of this month’s public rollout.
Steve Jobs hated Android so much he once said Apple would never make an iTunes app for Android because he didn’t want to do anything that would make Android users happy. At yesterday’s WWDC keynote, Tim Cook sang a different tune by announcing Apple Music would be available on Android too. What he didn’t say was everyone with an Android phone is going to have to pay. Even for the free features.
You don’t need us to tell you that knowing how to design for mobile is becoming a must for programmers. So it’s a great time for you to learn, whether you’re new to coding or just need to brush up on your mobile skills. We’ve put together a Mobile First Developer’s Bundle of 10 app programming courses at Cult of Mac Deals to help you do just that. Worth $1,740, you can pay what you want for a limited time.