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See Batman’s armored batsuit in first Batman v Superman trailer

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The Dark Knight gets headlights in the first trailer for Batman v. Superman. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures
The Dark Knight gets headlights in the first trailer for Batman v. Superman. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures

If Batman’s going to take on Superman, he’s going to need some extra protection and firepower. The first trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice gives us our a glimpse of the armored batsuit — complete with glowing white eyes — the Dark Knight will don in the superhero smackdown flick.

I think we can safely assume Jony Ive isn’t designing products for Bruce Wayne. The armored batsuit looks anything but thin and light.

You’ll never believe what ex-Apple VP Scott Forstall is up to now

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Scott Forstall
Forstall presenting at an Apple event back in the day. Photo: paz.ca/Flickr CC
Photo: paz.ca/ Flickr CC

We’re starting to learn more about what excommunicated Apple executive Scott Forstall is up to after years of flying under the radar. The former head of iOS is an advisor to Snapchat, and although he will likely continue to be involved in the tech scene, his interests are quite eclectic.

The man who was famously kicked out of Apple after numerous disputes that ended in the Apple Maps disaster is now a Broadway producer.

10 essential Finder tricks every Mac user should know

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Photo: Yeray Hdez Guerra/FlickrCC
Master your Mac with these 10 Finder tips. Photo: Yeray Hdez Guerra/Flickr CC

In Mac OS X, you’ll spend much of your time in the Finder, the part of your operating system that manages files and such. While you might think you know all there is to know about it, the Finder is a complex and wonderful app — with its own special tricks to master.

Here are 10 essential Finder tips that will help you get the most out of your time working or playing on your Mac.

Good heavens, R2! You’re flying!

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R2-D2 graces the outside of  this Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner that will fly this fall for All Nippon Airways. Photo: All Nippon Airways.
R2-D2 graces the outside of this Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner that will fly this fall for All Nippon Airways. Photo: All Nippon Airways.

Luke Skywalker does his best flying with R2-D2. Now customers of Japan’s All Nippon Airways can fly with the beloved Star Wars droid, thankfully without taking fire from TIE fighters.

New stoner ad from Ben & Jerry’s parodies an Apple classic

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This one's coming out on 4.20. Yes, that's intentional. Photo: Ben & Jerry's
This one's coming out on 4.20. Yes, that's intentional. Photo: Ben & Jerry's

Is this a new era of marketing directly to stoners?

In Ben & Jerry’s new ad for its in-shop confection, the Brrr-ito, a young woman wearing an ice cream server’s uniform runs into a room of slack-jawed young men staring at a screen showing a boring old ice cream bar.

What happens next should be no surprise to those of you who remember Ridley Scott’s famous ad for Apple in 1984 introducing the Mac.

Turn your iPhone into a disposable camera without throwing it away

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Photojojo has a new app that brings some of the fun of a disposable camera to your iPhone. Photo: Photojojo
Photojojo has a new app that brings some of the fun of a disposable camera to your iPhone. Photo: Photojojo

The analog types can argue technology has removed a lot of the magic from photography. The wonder is gone. We see the picture on our screen the very moment after it’s taken. The crappy shot from today would be cherished 10 years down the road, but you’ll never realize it because you deleted the picture.

Photojojo has developed an app to restore the wonder and magic. It turns your iPhone into a disposable camera – well, the wonder part anyway. You keep your phone.

Download the app for free on iTunes. You then pay $12.99 each time you want a camera in the app. On each camera are 27 exposures that become a set of prints sent to your doorstep about 10 days after the 27th pictures is snapped. You do not get to see the photo after you have made it – classic wonder – so the app prevents you from foolishly deleting some eventual important piece of your personal story.

Phil Schiller and Marc Newson show off Apple Watch at design fair in Milan

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Schiller talking to Apple employees in charge of Watch try-on appointments.

 

The Apple Watch is on display at the Salone Del Mobile design exhibition in Milan, Italy today. Attendees can see the Watch at the Carlo e Camilla in Segheria, a classy restaurant that’s been converted into an exclusive display area.

The high profile showcasing has Apple designer Marc Newson and longtime marketing exec Phil Schiller in attendance. Newson helped design the Watch with Jony Ive and was brought onto Apple’s payroll last year. Schiller is in charge of all the marketing behind Apple’s products.

MIT’s new wearable trackpad is all thumbs

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MIT researchers have found away to turn the thumbnail into a trackpad. Photo: MIT Media Lab
MIT researchers have found a way to turn the thumbnail into a trackpad. Photo: MIT Media Lab

Stop chewing your fingernails now. You may be biting off a new frontier in wearable technology.

Researchers at MIT have devised a way to turn the thumbnail into a wireless trackpad that will allow users to control their devices when their hands are full.

Imagine using the neighboring index finger, moving it across the thumbnail to help answer the phone while cooking, send a text message or toggle between symbol sets while texting.

Former Apple exec Scott Forstall advises one of tech’s hottest startups

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Where in the world is Scott Forstall?
Where in the world is Scott Forstall?

The greatest Apple mystery of the last few years hasn’t been the next iPhone or Apple Watch, but a man named Scott Forstall.

Since getting kicked out of Apple in late 2012, the former head of iOS and friend of Steve Jobs has had absolutely no profile in the tech scene whatsoever. He rarely even gets spotted in public. It’s like he’s fallen off the face of the earth.

Until now.

ICYMI: Hands-on with the Apple Watch

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Get your hands on our impressions of the Apple Watch in this week's Cult of Mac Magazine. Photo: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac
Get your hands on our impressions of the Apple Watch in this week's Cult of Mac Magazine. Photo: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac

This week, Leander takes some time to try on the Apple Watch in-store, finding out whether the hottest smartwatch out there is worth your time or money, David heads into an Apple Store on Magnificent Mile in Chicago for a fitting and to get some customer reactions, plus a ton of news about this latest wearable tech that you’ll want to read from cover to cover. We’ve also got Stephen with some travel tips for you and your trusty MacBook, as well as Luke’s take on why you want to upgrade your iOS to 8.3 right away (hint, it’s not emojis). Rob also walks you through a couple of how-tos, including one way to make sure your iOS gaming sessions aren’t interrupted with a simple tweak to Do Not Disturb.

Make sure to head on out and download Cult of Mac Magazine to get your own “hands” on the great content we dose you with every week.

L.A. school district wants multimillion-dollar refund for failed iPad program

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iPad Air 2
Apple's still leading, but the market for tablets is declining. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

The Los Angeles Unified School District is demanding a multimillion-dollar refund from Apple following a failed iPad program that was set to give more than 640,000 students a tablet for education.

It is thought that the Board of Education is exploring the possibility of litigation against the Cupertino company as it seeks to claim back money that has already been lost on the scheme.

18 things we learned from the new Star Wars trailer

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"Chewie, we're home." Photo: Disney

J.J. Abrams whetted our appetite for more lightsaber dueling action with the first Episode VII teaser last year, but today’s release of a new trailer has got us counting down the days until Christmas.

We’re still eight months away from Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ public release, and while plot details for the highly anticipated movie are being kept under wraps, there’s a ton of fresh info to glean from the new trailer. We’ve diced the entire trailer up into GIFs so you can rewatch each scene to look for new clues.

Here are 18 things we learned from the new trailer:

How to create entirely separate photo libraries in Photos

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Maybe you just want to have a library full of food pictures, you know? Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
Maybe you just want to have a library full of food pictures, you know? Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

One of the cooler hidden features of Photos (and iPhoto before it) is the ability to create more than one photo library. You can make one for your home photos, work photos, photos from a different camera, or those racy photos you don’t want the kids tripping over.

It’s pretty simple, but not totally intuitive – there’s no menu item to select to create a new library.

Follow our recipe to create as many different libraries as you like for separate but equal Photos access.

Smart sport glasses want to be Apple Watch for your head

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Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
The Recon Jet is Google Glass for sports like running and cycling. It's highly functional and works well, but still suffers from the Glasshole effect. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo:

You rarely see Google Glass anymore, but if Recon Instruments has its way, you’ll be seeing plenty more head-mounted displays in the future.

The Recon Jet, launched Thursday, is a pair of smart eyeglasses for sporty activities like running and biking. Bristling with sensors, the device shows all kinds of biometric data and social stats on its tiny heads-up display. Paired with a smartphone, it can take pictures and video, send and receive status updates, find friends and family on the piste and much more.

But sports is just a start. If Recon is successful — and that’s a big if — we may be seeing smart glasses in a lot more places. Recon is betting hard that the face is the place for smart wearables.

Share in a loved one’s care with GrandmaSays app

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GrandmaSays helps families coordinate care with medical alerts, task lists, a visit tracker and a place to share memories. Photo: GrandmaSays
GrandmaSays helps families coordinate care with medical alerts, task lists, a visit tracker and a place to share memories. Photo: GrandmaSays

Anastasia Medrano was anxious about her father’s health and it was an iPhone app that helped deliver peace of mind within seconds of the doctor giving him a good prognosis.

When the doctor said the cancer was in remission, her brother immediately alerted Medrano and another sibling with a new app called GrandmaSays, which allows families of a sick or elderly loved one to communicate medical updates, coordinate visits and share memories with text and photos.

“We’re kind of scattered and it falls on my one brother to take my dad to appointments,” said Medrano, of Irvine, Calif. “Rather than make severals calls, he can share the information in one place. We were hoping for the all clear and it was nice to get that ping on my phone.”

New Star Wars: The Force Awakens teaser brings fans back ‘home’

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This is how a Star Wars flick should look. Photo: Lucasfilm
This is how a Star Wars flick should look. Photo: Lucasfilm

“The Force is strong in my family,” says Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker voices over this second teaser trailer for the hotly anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie that will hit the big screen this coming December. “My father has it, I have it, my sister has it. You have that power, too.”

That’s how the nerdgasmic second trailer begins, and then slams into some seriously amazing scenes from the upcoming film, including a massive, crashed Star Destroyer, close ups of new stars Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, and Daisy Ridley, and a brilliant moment of fan service with everyone’s favorite smuggler and his humongous furry sidekick.

“Chewie,” says Han Solo, “We’re home.”

Tim Cook named one of Time’s 100 most influential people

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Tim Cook tops Time's list of influential people. Photo: Apple

Apple CEO Tim Cook is the fourth person on Time‘s list of “The 100 Most Influential People,” a self-referential grouping of important figures from technology, music, politics, and our global culture.

Cook’s short essay focuses on his business acumen as well as his socially responsible world-view.

“It could not have been easy for Tim Cook to step into the immense shadow cast by the late Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs,” writes Congressman John Lewis for Time. “But with grace and courage and an unabashed willingness to be his own man, Tim has pushed Apple to unimaginable profitability—and greater social responsibility.”

Take your internet anywhere and save 50% on the MiFi 2 Unlocked Global Hotspot [Deals]

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CoM_Mifi 2

Though there are many places that offer WiFi, the signal can often be unreliable, which renders your connection spotty at best. And, even if you do find a hotspot, you never know just how secure it is.

Now you can get a secure WiFi signal anywhere you need it with the MiFi 2 Unlocked Global Hotspot, only half price for a limited time at Cult of Mac Deals.

Apple Watch’s hardened aluminum in iPhone 6s could lay Bendgate to rest

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Apple's new aluminum will kill Bendgate.
Apple's new aluminum will kill Bendgate. Photo: Unbox Therapy
Photo: Unbox Therapy

It’s been rumored for months that the iPhone 6S might pick up Apple Watch’s Force Touch feature when it’s updated this Fall, but according to the Chinese media Jony Ive is also planning to use the same aluminum used in the Apple Watch Sport.

If Apple pulls it off, it could solve the Bendgate controversy.

Apple just bought a forest 2.5 times the size of Manhattan

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forest
Apple's forest in North Carolina - where future iPhone boxes are born. Photo: Whitney Flanagan, The Conservation Fund
Photo: Whitney Flanagan, The Conservation Fund

When you’re the richest company in the world you can afford to do crazy things: build a spaceship campus, start secret electric car projects, or buy an entire forest.

Apple announced today that it’s buying up 36,000 acres of private forest land that will be sustainably harvested and used for its packaging.

The land is broken into two tracts in Maine and North Carolina and will be managed by the Conservation Fund. Combined, the two tracts are more that two times the size of Manhattan. The pulp from the trees will go toward Apple’s packaging needs, but other companies will be able to buy fiber from them too.