Cult of Mac

Most apps are way too nice to us. “Don’t worry that you missed your 10,000 steps today,” they say. “There’s always tomorrow.”

CARROT apps are different. Whether you’re using a CARROT calorie counter or a CARROT weather forecaster, all the apps in the growing line have one thing in common: an hilariously sadistic AI character that serves as your in-app guide, dishing out harsh punishments if you miss your targets.

“So many of the apps out there are just cloyingly sweet, CARROT creator Brian Mueller tells Cult of Mac. “They’re always telling you that you’re doing a good job, no matter what you’re doing. I wondered what would happen if you did the opposite and created a sarcastic, irreverent personality who would yell at you if you don’t get stuff done. And, to my surprise, people really, really responded to it.”

April 24 isn’t just about the Apple Watch. If you live in China, it’s also the day on which the second brick-and-mortar Apple Store opens in Hangzhou — following hot on the heels of the recently-opened gorgeous West Lake store in the city’s Shangcheng District.

The new store is located in the city’s Jianggan District, in a MixC mall that is also home to a number of high-end brand stores and upmarket eateries.

Apple was among 12 tech companies — also including Google and Microsoft — which appeared in front of an Australian parliamentary hearing on Wednesday to defend their corporate tax structures in the country.

Apple has previously stood accused of shifting close to $8.1 billion in untaxed profits from its Australian operations to its business operations in Ireland over the course of the past decade.

Sometimes described as “Netflix for pirates,” the video streaming service Popcorn Time is coming to iPhone. The standalone Popcorn Time iOS app will launch imminently — quite possibly as early as today — and will allow users to watch pirated TV shows and movies on the move.

While it won’t be allowed in the App Store for obvious reasons, a workaround means users can install the app without having to jailbreak their handsets first — although, for now, you’ll need to have access to a Windows computer.

Samsung’s not had too much luck with smartwatches, but a newly-published patent application shows that it’s not ready to throw in the towel just yet.

The patent describes what is less a traditional watch than a wristband or He-Man-style manacle. It features a wraparound widescreen display, able to function in both bent and flat states, and describes its possible applications as multimedia viewing and communication.

After all, you never know when you’ll need to summon Battle Cat to help in your ongoing war with Skeletor and his cronies!

Instagram quietly enabled an option today that makes it super-easy to keep track of your favorite accounts.

You can now set up push notifications for whenever a specific account posts a new photo. The timing of the new feature makes perfect sense with the impending release of the Apple Watch.

Just three days before Apple’s smartwatch will be on display in stores around the world, new pictures have revealed what Apple Watch packaging will look like.

Images of the Apple Watch box, which doubles as a charging stand, were posted on Instagram today. With the first review units already out in the wild, we’re learning new details about the Apple Watch nearly every day, like how Apple Watch bands will be packaged.

Here’s a glimpse of the Apple Watch band boxes:

Sony is planning to invest $376 million dollars to boost capacity for chips used in smartphone camera sensors, including the iPhone. The company announced today that this will be the second boost to capacity made this year to meet demand.

Level-5, the game developer behind adored Nintendo 3DS gaming franchises Professor Layton and Fantasy Life, is making the rough transition to mobile devices.

At a press conference in Japan, Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino said Layton 7, the next installment in the Professor Layton series, and Fantasy Life 2, sequel to the much-loved Fantasy Life sim game, would be coming to iOS and Android smartphones.

Unfortunately, both games show signs of becoming shallow mobile experiences, the biggest reason companies like Nintendo have cited as a reason not to bring handheld titles into the mobile arena.

My, how times have changed.

The iPad mini 3 was a bit of a disappointment because Apple really didn’t make any improvements other than adding Touch ID. Big changes could be in order for 2015, though, according to a video of an alleged 4th generation iPad mini rear shell that shows Apple’s smallest tablet is about to get an iPad Air redesign.

Watch the full hands-on video below.

Want a free month of HBO Now on your Apple TV, iPad or iPhone? If you sign up for the standalone service now, you can watch the premier of Game of Thrones on April 15 absolutely free.

I’m a long-time cord cutter and I’m super-excited that I can now purchase HBO directly from the television network, via iTunes, instead of having to sign up for a local cable TV package and then pay for HBO on top of that.

If you’ve got an Apple TV or an iOS device, you can get your own free month. Here’s how.

HBO finally unleashed its Netflix-killer today with the HBO Now app for iOS and Apple TV. The company is already having a hard time keeping up with demand on the streaming service, but according to a profile on HBO CEO Richard Plepler CEO, the original plan was to launch it at the end of 2016.

Today’s launch may not have happened it if weren’t for Apple executive Jimmy Iovine, who sparked the connection between HBO and Apple. After Fox CEO Rupert Murdoch made a hostile bid to takeover of Time Warner last year, Plepler says he knew he need to pivot the company. So he called up his old buddy Jimmy and asked if Apple would be interested in an HBO Now deal.

“I think that’s the shit,” Jimmy said.

Instagram has been inching towards being an all-in-one edit suite, and today the app took another small step in that direction.

Apple’s secret electric car project won’t be hitting highways for at least another five years (if ever), but that’s not stopping concept artists from dreaming up what a Project Titan vehicle might look like.

The folks at Freelancer held an Apple concept car contest this week, with the winner taking home a $1,500 prize. Top honors went to this semi-autonomous electric car concept from Aristomenis Tsirbas that oozes with Apple’s traditional minimalist design. Other features include custom LED head and tail lights, and discreet hatch doors that open laterally.

Here’s a look with the doors open:

If you’ve ever been interested in learning how to code but have balked at paying high tuition costs and investing your valuable time with a classroom schedule, then we’ve got an offer that you must take advantage of.

Now you can become a pro web developer and coder on your own schedule with the Learn to Code 2015 Course Bundle, available at Cult of Mac Deals for a limited time and at a discount that’s so huge you’d be crazy to pass it up.

HBO Now has finally landed on Apple TV, giving users access to stream HBO’s entire catalog of shows and live programming for just $14.99 per month. Apple TV owners can start using the service immediately with a free 30-day trial period.

Today’s HBO Now launch comes just in time for the Game of Thrones Season 5 premiere this Sunday. If you haven’t caught up, there might be enough hours left in the week to stream the past four seasons.

There are those who ride mountain bikes and then there is Eric Barone. He rides his mountain bike down actual mountains.

Apparently, the faster the better.

The French daredevil known as the Red Baron recently rode a specially groomed speed track down a snow-covered mountain in Vars in the French Alps, breaking his own world speed record with a ride that nearly approached 139 miles per hour.

If you want to skip out on posing for photos during the next family vacation, do what Hauke Scheer plans to do — use a 3-D-printed version of yourself as a stand-in.

The Scheer family might let him get away with it, since the fully articulated action figure of himself that he created is a pretty good likeness. The quality of his miniature plastic doppelganger — and the geeky scheme to get out of family portraits — tell you something about Scheer, 39, who earns a living making 3-D-printed figures of mechanized whales and other crazy characters from his home in Frankfurt, Germany.

“I am a total geek with a huge collection of comics, science fiction and fantasy movies and, of course, action figures,” Scheer, who runs Deep Fried Figures, told Cult of Mac. “I started sculpting my own figures during my early teenage years at a time when lots of characters I loved were not available in figure form. After a while, I realized it was even more fun to make characters of my own.”

Apple may have already used the name “Force Touch” for its touch-sensitive tech, but if you’re a sci-fi fan who’s ever dreamed of wielding The Force to control your Mac with an Obi Wan-like sweep of the hand, you could be in luck.

Apple today published a patent for a technology which describes in-air 3D gesturing which allows it to accurately establish not only where a user’s hand might be, but also what it is doing. As such, it opens up the possibility of creating detailed hand poses for triggering different actions.

Throwing up a pair of hand horns to get AC/DC blaring out on iTunes? Yes please.

Considering how great its other products are, there’s little contesting the fact that Apple’s search functions have traditionally sucked.

That remains true to this day, although improvements are slowly being made — and proof of this is the newly-uncovered acquisition of a search startup called Ottocat, which now powers the “explore” tab in the App Store.

From pop-up kiosks in up-scale luxury department stores to focusing more on the fashion press than the tech pages, it’s been fascinating to watch the unorthodox way in which Apple is choosing to spread the word about its upcoming Apple Watch: attempting to make it into this summer’s must-have item.

During Monday’s episode of The Voice, the next step of this roll-out was revealed, as Pharrell Williams — acting as a judge on the show — was spotted wearing the device, without a supervising Apple engineer or PR bod in sight.

Hey, as fashion items go, it makes a change from giant hats, at least!

The Star Wars movies will finally arrive in iTunes this week, marking the classic series (and its three disappointing prequels) going digital for the first time ever.

“We’re thrilled that fans will be able to enjoy the Star Wars saga on their digital devices wherever they go,” Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said in a statement. “These films broke new ground in technology, design, sound, and visual effects, and we’ve created some very special bonus material which delves into the saga’s rich history, including new and never-before-released conversations between legendary Star Wars artists — the masters who helped George bring his iconic universe to life.”

Check out more details about the bonus features below:

Launch day queues for the latest must-have gadget are as much a part of Apple culture as learning to live without ports and optical drives.

But Apple retail guru Angela Ahrendts wants to change all that — sending out an email to Apple Store employees proclaiming that, “The days of waiting in line … are over” for customers.

Her alternative? Shop online.

Snapchat used to have a “Best Friends” list that showed you who each of your friends snapped with the most. It was a weird, slightly stalkerish part of the app that was removed last year.

Now Snapchat has brought back a way to see top friends, but in a more fun way that relies totally on emojis (and won’t destroy your relationships). Here’s how to decode what the new Snapchat emojis mean.

On the Mac, it’s super-easy to search for a word or phrase within the currently loaded page. You simply hit Command-F on your keyboard and Safari, Chrome or any other web browser will open up a little field to type your search terms into.

But what about when you’re using mobile Safari on your iPhone or iPad? How do you find a specific word or phrase there?

It’s pretty simple, but not super-intuitive. Here’s our recipe for finding search terms on your iPhone’s version of Safari.