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Take better selfies with your iPhone’s timer mode

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Gather all your friends for a groupie with the timer on your iPhone. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
Gather all your friends for a groupie with the timer on your iPhone. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

It can be tricky to get the best shot when taking a selfie or group shot with your iPhone. If you want a better angle than the length of your arm can provide (or your ridiculous selfie stick will telescope to), you might consider setting your iPhone on a ledge or tripod and using the built-in timer mode to get yourself and everyone else into position before the shutter goes off.

It’s not super-tricky, but you do need to know where to look. Here’s our recipe to enable timer mode on your iPhone.

Control a Star Wars droid with your iPhone, you will

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Roly-poly new Star Wars droid BB-8 is impossibly cute. Photo: Lucasfilm
Roly-poly new Star Wars droid BB-8 is impossibly cute. Photo: Lucasfilm

Soon you’ll be able to control the cute new robotic star of Star Wars: The Force Awakens with your iPhone.

The toy version of BB-8, the droid with an R2-D2-style head perched precariously atop a rolling round body, will pop up in Disney stores later this year. While pricing isn’t yet known for the Star Wars toy, it will be made by Sphero, whose roly-poly robotic toy caught the eye of Disney chief Robert Iger.

New platform offers visual artists a chance to put their stamp on it

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Stampsy is a new digital publishing platform for visual artists to elegantly design and curate content. Photo: Stampsy
Stampsy is a new digital publishing platform for visual artists to elegantly design and curate content. Photo: Stampsy

There are many ways for photographers to display and share work: Build a website, post on Facebook, spread your brand on Instagram or create a repository on Flickr.

But the few mentioned above are not perfect, especially when it comes to displaying photo stories and essays.

Imagine quickly creating an elegant, magazine-style splash with the best features of social media on a simple computer platform. Stampsy wants to help visual storytellers leave an impression with their work.

Death-defying iPhone films dizzying 40-story dive

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The view of Dubai from Catalin Marin's iPhone before the phone fell 40 stories. Photo: Catalin Marin/YouTube
The view of Dubai from Catalin Marin's iPhone before the phone fell 40 stories. Photo: Catalin Marin/YouTube

Catalin Marin should be walking around the streets of Dubai with a new iPhone – and not the one he dropped from a building 40 stories high.

Not only did Marin’s phone survive, it was rolling video the whole way down. When he got to his phone, he was able to watch it play back.

“I had a bit of a mishap this morning,” he wrote on her Instagram feed to introduce the 15-second video. “Shooting from the 40th floor, my phone decided to go for a ride into the wind. Forty floors down, not a scratch in sight.”

Galaxy S6 cracks walnuts without picking up a scratch

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Should an Android app instructing people how to chop walnuts ever get developed, don’t be surprised if the first order of business is this: Place walnuts on surface of Galaxy S6. Then begin smashing nuts with another S6.

A pair of YouTube videos showing people using their S6 to crack walnuts may be a commentary on the durability of the Samsung phone versus say a certain smartphone that some say bends over time in a tight pocket.

Both videos end with the hands of the nut smasher flipping the phones screen up and turning them on to show they still work. Before you halt your search for your misplaced nutcracker, it is not known whether the videos are the products of pranksters using some sort of visual trickery.

Flashlight and other awesome Mac and iOS app updates you might have missed last week

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Flashlight

Spotlight got a major upgrade with OS X Yosemite, but what if it could do even more?

The new 1.0 release of Flashlight is so good that Apple hired its developer, Nate Parrott, to work as an intern on Spotlight.

Flashlight is a little like Alfred and LaunchBar, expect it hooks directly into Spotlight and adds over 160 actions. That means you may need to never use a third-party app launcher utility again, although many power users will likely stick with their current setup.

So what exactly can Flashlight do? The list is too long to put here, but some options include: creating calendar events, creating reminders, opening URLs, translating text, calling numbers, sending iMessages, checking the weather, ejecting disks, copying emojis, and turning on a screensaver.

Available on: Mac

Price: Free

Download: Flashlight website


Awesome Apps

Why hands-on with Apple Watch has made us believers, this week on The CultCast

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We're seeing the light.
We're seeing the light.
Photo: Leap of Faith. Paramount Pictures.

We cover all the best Apples stories on each week’s CultCast, but this week we take it to the next level. Hit play to hear: why trying on the Apple Watch will make you a believer; our WWDC hardware predictions; why a recent acquisition might mean a revolutionary new iPhone camera; and Leander reviews the new Macbook.

Our thanks for Freshbooks for supporting this episode. FreshBooks is the easy-to-use invoicing software designed to help small business owners get organized, save time invoicing and get paid faster. It also makes tax time a cinch. Get started now with a 30-day free trial.

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Full show notes ahead!

Is Nike and Apple’s relationship on the rocks?

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Where to next for Nike+ runners? Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac
Where to next for Nike+ runners? Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac
Photo: Graham Bower

Apple’s new Activity and Fitness apps for Apple Watch might signal the end of the company’s long partnership with Nike.

So what does this mean for the millions of us who were introduced to Nike+ by Apple in 2006 and have been logging our runs this way ever since? Are we about to get caught in a Kramer vs. Kramer-style tug of love?

Add all your videos to your iTunes library with iFlicks

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iFlicks makes it easy to import all your videos into iTunes. Photo: iFlicks
iFlicks makes it easy to import all your videos into iTunes. Photo: iFlicks

This post is brought to you by iFlicks.

Are all your videos hidden in a bunch of folders or stored haphazardly in the cloud? Wouldn’t you rather they were all as easy to sort and locate as your iTunes content, with metadata like movie posters and cast credits?

Using iFlicks 2, you can easily import your video collection into iTunes. This gives you the ability to watch your third-party videos directly in iTunes or transfer them to your Apple TV, iPad, iPod or iPhone. On top of that, iFlicks downloads metadata (information or visuals related to your videos) and lets you tweak the metadata manually. Managing your video collection in iTunes has never been this easy!

Thin is in: The 2015 MacBook hands-on review

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12-inch MacBook
No USB, no problem. The new 2015 MacBook rocks. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Imagine an iPad Air sliced in half. The top half peels up to reveal a pin-sharp high-res screen. The other half has a full-size keyboard that’s almost flat.

This is the new MacBook. As usual, Apple’s latest crazy-thin laptop is dividing the tech punditsphere.

Because it comes with only one port, some think this machine is too radical, too new. It’s been called a glorified netbook — short on features, and, to really rub it in, high on price.

But I’m smitten. We have one in here at the Cult of Mac offices, and I’ve been putting it through its paces. Here’s what I found.

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.