Cult of Mac

A Brazilian neo-pop artist is suing Apple for ripping off his artwork for the company’s “Start Something New” marketing campaign. Is Apple guilty, or is it just a mistake?

Rumors of a redesign coming to the iOS Music app have been floating around the rumor mill ever since Apple acquired Beats last year, and today we got our first preview of the future of music.

iOS 8.4 gives developers a look at the redesigned Music app that’s aimed at making it easier, faster, and more fun to listen to music than ever before. Apple has left out the long-rumored streaming-music component of the app, but the redesign is full of other noteworthy features.

Here’s a quick GIF tour of all the new changes:

Apple just delivered a huge update to users with the release of iOS 8.3 last week, now it’s giving developers a preview of it’s upcoming redesign of the Music app with iOS 8.4 beta 1.

The new iOS 8.4 beta is available now in the iOS Dev Center and includes new Music app with an all-new design that makes exploring your music collection “easier and more fun.”

We’ll let you know what new features we find. In the meantime, here’s Apple’s description of the new Music app:

I’ve been playing Vainglory quite a bit lately, and the one thing that really distracts me and actually impacts my gameplay (when on my iPad 3) is notifications. They can make the game stutter, which wreaks havok on my ability to gank an enemy Joule from the bushes with my Krul.

Seriously, it’s annoying.

I turned on Do Not Disturb last week to try and get rid of these badges that annoy, but it never worked: I still got notifications from Facebook, Messages and other appss. I did some digging to find out why.

Apple scored a huge win for Apple TV by making it the only platform your can watch HBO Now on for the next three months, and according to a new report, Apple might be rewarding HBO by taking a much lower cut on subscription fees than cable companies.

Apple has been taking a 30 percent cut anytime a company signs up a customer for a service through an iOS app. Publishers bristled at Apple’s policy when it was introduced in 2011, however, when it comes to subscriptions purchased through Apple TV, Apple has decided to reduced its take by 50%.

This post is brought to you by Sony.

We’re massive fans of Sony cameras, so we’re really interested in two new Action Cam models that challenge the GoPro status quo. To show off the eye-popping capabilities of its high-def duo — the 4K and the Full HD — Sony commissioned more than 20 short films shot on the tiny video cameras by directors from all over the world.

The first batch of the Never Before Seen shorts show how innovative filmmakers and artists utilize the Action Cams’ small size, enhanced image stability and other unique features to make Hollywood-level videos.

Arganalth, a 23-year old engineer from Lille, France gives old computer hardware a second life by creating electrical orchestras in a suitcase.

His latest masterpiece plays Nirvana’s “Smell’s Like Teen Spirit,” only instead of strumming the cords on a Fender Mustang, all the distortion and rock is provided by a couple floppy disks and hard disk drives, with a Raspberry Pi as the conductor. It’s one of the most popular new music videos on YouTube right now, and it doesn’t take like to appreciate why.

Listen to the full performance below:

Spain’s government has passed a series of laws that criminalize some forms of protest. But authorities may find it challenging to arrest holograms.

The group No Somos Delito, or We Are Not Crime, fired back at the government Friday using irony and digital technology with a projected hologram rally in front of Spain’s parliament.

Human rights groups were outraged when the conservative government passed laws in December that were seen as silencing protests over Spain’s austerity programs.

While we might all be waiting breathlessly for Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron this summer, there’s another big contender for tiny superhero dominance: Ant Man.

Starring Paul Rudd as Scott Lang, Ant Man will show up on the big screen this July. The new trailer below gives us the first glimpse of Rudd in his Ant Man suit, which gives the character superhuman strength, the ability to shrink to a miniscule size, and the ability to communicate and control ants.

It’s a pretty ridiculous set of powers, but, as Rudd says near the end of the trailer, “I know; it wasn’t my idea.”

The crazy machines are at it again, only this time it’s not what we’ve come to expect from the long-running Terminator franchise, now coming to theaters in July as Terminator: Genisys

In the first film, Arnold Schwarzenegger played the original bad-ass invincible robot from the future out to kill Sarah Connor, originally played by Linda Hamilton, and her son John. Subsequent movies with the governator messed with the formula a bit, bringing in the scary liquid metal terminators and placing the original metal skeleton monster into a savior role.

But none of the movies have gone this far in messing with our heads or the plotline.

Spoilers abound; consider yourself warned.

Apple gave its video editing software Final Cut Pro X a big new update this morning that includes new features like 3D titles and GPU-accelerated RED RAW processing. A number of updates were also added to Final Cut Pro X’s companion apps Compressor and Motion.

The Final Cut Pro 10.2 release is the 15th update since Apple drastically overhauled its video editing software in 2011, bringing more professional features to draw in more video producers. Perhaps the biggest features is the addition of iTunes Store Package to Compressor that makes it easier than ever for movie makers to package and sell an films on iTunes.

“From Hollywood blockbuster directors to first time movie makers, Final Cut Pro X is changing the way we edit movies today,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “The updated Final Cut Pro X, Motion and Compressor make it even easier to edit, title and package everything from short videos to feature-length films.”

Here’s some of the changes coming today:

You would have thought King Kong taught us never to fly too close to primates.

Like the giant silver screen ape swatting fighter planes out of the air, a chimpanzee at the Royal Burgers’ Zoo in the Netherlands defended its habitat with a long stick to knock down a camera-carrying drone flying over its habitat.

The GoPro camera survived the crash and managed to record everything, from the stick-wielding chimp making a ferocious face as it made a direct hit to the quadrocopter to the crash aftermath of the curious chimps looking into the camera before it destroyed the drone.

Up until now, the majority of iPhones have been built in China, but long-time Apple manufacturer Foxconn could be setting its sights on a new developing market: India.

According to the Economic Times, the Foxconn Technology Group is set to pour money into three new facilities in India — based in the country’s Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh provinces — with a view to building iPhones for its biggest client.

The internet is the western world’s business hub. We use it to communicate with family, friends, and colleagues; to conduct our banking and other financial transactions; and also to shop worldwide, often paying for goods and services by credit card.

The point is that we enter an enormous amount of sensitive data about ourselves on the internet every single day, making us vulnerable to security breaches. It’s easy to protect yourself though. All you need is a lifetime subscription to VPN Unlimited, 70% off at Cult of Mac Deals for a limited time.

Being a workaholic means I’m always taking my MacBook with me wherever I travel, but carrying around a $2,000 machine is a constant risk. In today’s s video I show you everything you need to know to keep your MacBook safe while you’re on the move.

There are just two of us in the apartment, but power strips and bulky USB adapters charging our various devices take up room in every room.

The founders of SnapPower are building a company around the electrical outlet to bring order to household cords.

After the success of an outlet plate with built-in LED lights, the Orem, Utah company already has raised thousands of dollars on Kickstarter to produce an electrical outlet cover with a sleek, built-in USB charger.

Eligible for an upgrade on your Sprint handset? If so, you may be able to take advantage of a great new offer from the company, whereby a Sprint representative will personally deliver your new phone and configure it for you — all from the comfort of your home.

Check out a video below.

If researchers at Slice Intelligence are to be believed, the Apple Watch scored big when it became available for preorders last week.

How big? Try 957,000 people preordering in the U.S. on Friday alone — with the more-affordable Apple Watch Sport model racking up the biggest number of sales.

Check out more of the breakdown figures and interesting sales stats below.

You know Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone maker which copied Apple designs en route to becoming the world’s most valuable startup?

Well, depending on who you are, get ready to bust out a tune on the world’s smallest violin, because Xiaomi’s quest to conquer the smartphone-owning world has apparently hit a bit of a snag: people keep copying its designs.

Yes, seriously.

There are dozens of super-cool products offered at Cult of Mac Deals every single day.

Today we highlight a few of the best deals that are available right now because we’d hate to see anybody miss out on a good thing. Of course, you can go to Cult of Mac Deals any time to see all of products we have to purchase at huge savings.

Recently, Apple sparked a little bit of confusion when they announced that every Apple Watch Sport would contain two separate bands. People interpreted that to mean that it shipped with two complete bands: one for small and medium wrists, and one for large wrists. But the truth is more complicated. Bad news for swappers.

Last month, we reported that the Apple Watch boasted a secret port that could be used in the future to unlock cool accessories… and, maybe, jailbreak the Apple Watch. Later reports, though, indicated that this port was an Apple-only diagnostic port, that could be missing from retail models.

If that’s true, though, no one told Apple’s retail stores. The Apple Watch units available for try-on appointments at Apple Stores around the world still have the diagnostic port.

If you didn’t make it down to the SoCal desert this weekend for the massive Coachella music festival, fear not — most of the action is being streamed live on Youtube.

Fire it up on your Apple TV, and you can enjoy Jack White, The War on Drugs, Interpol, Clean Bandit, Tyler the Creator, Run the Jewels, alt-J, The Weeknd and tons more.

However, the YouTube streams are a bit tricky to find; as is a simple guide to what’s being broadcast.

Here’s how to find it, and the full webcast schedule by time:

CHICAGO — I grabbed the black suit jacket I was married in because I wasn’t sure how to dress for a private appointment to try on a $10,000 gold watch.

My look is challenging to class up. The clean-shaven head, long goatee and ample belly blend in better at a biker bar. But I felt halfway respectable-looking when I walked into the Apple Store in Chicago’s upscale Lincoln Park neighborhood for a Saturday morning hands-on showing of the Apple Watch Edition.

Not many Apple Stores are scheduling appointments for the 18-karat gold Edition, but the ones that do provide extra-special attention. I had a friendly guide, two floor supervisors who came by to shake my hand and thank me for my patience, and a couple of hawk-eyed security guards.