Cult of Mac

A Beijing court has ruled against Apple, upholding the validity of a patent for a “type of instant messaging chat bot system” held by a Chinese company.

Zhizhen Internet Technology sued Apple back in 2012, claiming that virtual assistant Siri was infringing on the Chinese company’s patented idea for a so-called Xiaoi Bot. The Chinese bot was patented in 2004 — two years before the first Siri-related patent filing was made.

Tuesday’s Beijing court ruling paves the way for Zhizhen to continue its case against Apple for intellectual property infringement. Apple’s defense? That it never heard of Zhizhen’s technology prior to creating Siri.

Having been delayed from 2013 to 2014 in order to let its developers “fully achieve” their vision for the game, the eagerly awaited Modern Combat 5: Blackout finally has a release date — and it’s later this month. The Gameloft FPS will be arriving on Android and iOS devices on Thursday, July 24th, priced at $6.99 with (mercifully) no in-app purchases.

The game is set to take players on yet another adventure across the world, beginning in Venice, Italy, before protagonist Phoenix is set on a special operation to secure the transport of WMDs from a well-armed terrorist group. Unsurprisingly, not everything will go to plan, and from here you jump from set piece to spectacular set piece, including helicopter and speedboat-based moments.

As you can see from the exclusive “making of” feature I wrote a few months back, I’m a massive fan of Monument Valley, the surrealistic M.C. Escher-inspired iOS puzzle game that rocked the App Store earlier this year.

A recent winner of Apple’s Design Awards at WWDC, Monument Valley is a triumph of isometric design, in which you guide a white-clad princess through a series of impossible structures in a game Apple describes as “akin to a walk through a museum or listening to a music album.”

While the game was already a bargain at $3.99, it’s just been the recipient of a slashed pricetag — meaning that you can now pick it up for the bargain price of $1.99.

Don’t underestimate the power of having Apple on your side!

Not long after Foxconn announced record earnings thanks to its work on the iPhone, fellow Apple manufacturer Pegatron Corp is predicted to see consolidated revenues of $33.3 billion for 2014, mainly due to shipments of Apple’s next generation iPhone and iPad models.

UPDATE: Reuters didn’t use Tim Cook’s complete remarks, we’ve posted them here.

Apple should do more to improve accessibility for its apps, says an advocacy group, supported by members of the National Federation of the Blind.

“It’s time for Apple to step up or we will take the next step,” NFB of California board member Michael Hingson told Reuters. The advocacy group successfully sued Apple regarding iTunes back in 2008, with Apple paying out $250,000 and giving the service an accessibility-minded makeover as part of the settlement. While it may not reach the level of a repeat lawsuit, Hingson says that this could be “the only resort” to force Apple’s hand.

Matthew Watkins has brought iPad finger paintings into the real world in more formats than any other artist we know.

His digital artwork has made the leap into the tangible on carpets, cars, plexiglass and the more usual prints, videos, books and live installations at fashion shows and art events. Watkins, who lives in Southern Italy — by way of Manchester, England, and a childhood spent in Toronto — uses his personal peregrinations as a source of inspiration for his ongoing series on imaginary cities, which hovers between utopia and dystopia.

“I’m drawn to urban decay and architectural artifacts,” Watkins says of the works that were on display in a recent exhibit at Verona’s Palazzo Gran Guardia. “I’ve drawn buildings and cities since I was a child. As a teenager I would draw my own imaginary worlds. I still do.”

Design questions aside, the true mystery about Apple’s long-rumored iWatch lies in exactly what types of health-related sensors the wearable might include. A recent report claims the iWatch will sport an astonishing 10 different sensors, including one for sweat.

While pedometers, accelerometers, thermometers and every other o-meter Jony Ive can get his hands on might all make sense for a smartwatch, we’re wondering what Apple could do with a sweat sensor? Other than verify that, yes, your sweat glands are pouring out more fluid per minute than Niagara Falls during your jog?

It turns out that adding sweat sensors would do more than differentiate the iWatch from smartwatches by LG, Motorola and Samsung right out of the gate. It could make the iWatch the most “personal” device you’ve ever shackled yourself to, with surprising applications that go far beyond fitness and health.

If you’re flying into or out of the United Kingdom, you’d better make sure your Android or iOS handset is fully charged. With the U.S. government recently announcing that all airline passengers with personal electronics devices will now be required to turn them on to prove that they work, the U.K.’s Department for Transport has announced that the same rules will now apply in the United Kingdom.

The new ruling follows reports that terrorists may be able to use phones and electronic devices as a conveyor of explosives that can get around current security checks.

Apple’s iBeacon tech has been a boon for retail stores looking to advertise deals to customers on a per-location basis, but according to the a new report, retail is only smallest market iBeacons have tapped into.

In five years a swarm of 60 million iBeacons and other Bluetooth LE beacons will have invaded the US market, says a report from ABI Research, all thanks to new applications in everything from enterprise, hospital management, smart homes and personal device tracking:

The latest iOS 8 beta serves up many minor tweaks that put a friendly, usable face on the major improvements at the heart of the mobile operating system. In today’s video, we take a quick look at iOS 8 beta 3. We’ll show you the latest upgrades to the software to give you an idea what to expect to see on your own device this fall, when Apple releases iOS 8 to the public.

Subscribe to Cult of Mac TV on YouTube to catch all our latest videos.

From its flexible but hard-as-nails Sapphire glass display, to its larger form factor, we’ve seen a lot of apparent leaks regarding the upcoming iPhone 6 — cluing us in on what we can expect from Apple’s next-generation smartphone. Now a new set of component pictures, including what seems to be a legitimate glimpse of the device’s previously-unseen SIM tray, appear to confirm the colors we should expect to be able to pick up our iPhone 6 devices in.

The images, first shown by the website Letem svetem Applem suggest that, like the current iPhone 5s, the new iPhone 6 will be available in Silver, Gold and Space Gray color configurations.

iTunes U is making it more simple for students and teachers to connect with a 2.0 update that brings new course creation and discussion features to Apple’s popular educational app.

After being announced last month by Apple, iTunes U received its largest update in over a year this morning that allows iTunes U users to participate in private discussions on their course, posts, or assignments, while also giving teachers more tools to manage their classes while on the go.

It’s hard to imagine the inventor of gangsta rap having an office in the spotless halls of Apple’s Cupertino headquarters. Dr. Dre managed to rise above the streets of Compton to become the self-proclaimed “first hip-hop billionaire” thanks to Apple’s $3 billion acquisition of Beats.

While Dre is actually valued between $700-$800 million following the Beats sale, he is still an amazing success story. Not only did his hometown of Compton celebrate “Dre Day” for the first time this summer, but his incredible career is inspiring inner-city kids to dream big.

Apple’s semi-secret Factory Clearance store on eBay is back.

Last year Apple used a discreet eBay Store to push out deals on MacBooks, iMacs, and iPods at cheaper prices than the Refurbished Apple Store, but this year’s shop is dedicated to clearing inventory of all the remaining iPhone 5 units at the cheapest price on the web.

Steve Jobs has an enormous reputation for eking out every last drop of performance from his talented employees, but even in the early days of Apple, that maniacal drive for success came with the huge trade-off of driving away his closest friends that built the Macintosh with him.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak gave a brief interview with the Milwaukee Business Journal claiming his relationship with Jobs has been portrayed inaccurately by the media. The Apple co-founders have always been friends and Woz says the two never had an argument, but Woz can’t say the same for the other top engineers at Apple.

The deep synth pad from M83’s “My Tears Are Becoming A Sea” fills the air with an ethereal sound in this new trailer (below) for an upcoming video game. We watch a strange winged creature land on the ground just in time for a lithe foot to strike nearby. It’s a elf-like warrior archer, and she’s running for her life.

Saved by a golden steampunk robot character, the archer gets up and re-takes her place in the battle against hordes of robotic enemies, alongside a bunch of other heroes, including a blood-red dual-sword-wielding elf-dude with long hair as well as a massive dude with a gigantic gatling gun, like something out of Team Fortress 2.

All of this takes place in cinematic-styled slow motion, with M83’s music as the perfect match to the trailer’s action. “This is something to take seriously,” the trailer seems to say. “This is a game you’ll want to play.”

This is Battleborn, the upcoming “hero-shooter” from 2K games and Gearbox Software, the publisher/developer team behind the highly-successful Borderlands series.

If you’re anything like me, losing your iPhone is nearly a weekly occurrence. Kevin Whitney has the same problem, except when the Oklahoma farmer lost his iPhone it traveled halfway across the world.

Whitney accidentally dropped his iPhone into a grain pit last October and watched it shoot up the elevator and disappear into a bin full of 280,000 pounds of grain. Luckily for him, the lost iPhone full of family photos found its way to an incredibly nice person in Japan.

Two years after Apple replaced Google with its own Maps app in iOS 6, the last remnant of Google Maps in Apple’s ecosystem is getting the boot. Apple has begun switching to its own mapping service for the Find My iPhone web app on iCloud.com.

The change isn’t visible for everyone yet, but it can be seen from the beta version of iCloud.com where Apple tests upcoming features.

After we posted our handy Mac keyboard shortcuts video, we got a ton of comments — and more great suggestions about ways to streamline working with your Apple computer.

In today’s video, we take a look at another handful of great Mac keyboard shortcuts, and show you how you can make your own.

Subscribe to Cult of Mac TV on YouTube to catch all our latest videos.

A gang of 20 armed robbers have raided a Samsung factory in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and stolen over 40,000 devices worth around $6 million. Phones, tablets, laptops, and other electronics were loaded into seven trucks before the thieves made off with the loot.

Computer programming can be a difficult endeavor, especially when programming with languages such as C or Pascal. Most of your time is spent learning a code’s complex syntax, which can lead to frustration and headaches.

Python is a computer coding language that is designed for easy readability. It allows programmers to express an idea with fewer lines of code than would be possible with other programming languages. Right now, you can become a Python expert with the Pure Python Hacker Bundle: Master Python & Django Programming for just $49 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Uber has just poached one of Apple’s senior engineering manager, who worked on both the company’s Maps app and its iPhone software, says subscription website The Information.

The senior iOS engineer in question, Chris Blumenberg, was among the first engineers to work on the iPhone’s software — joining Apple in 2000 initially to help Microsoft port Internet Explorer and Office over to Mac OS X.

The Information editor Jessica Lessin claims that three sources familiar with Blumenberg’s jump to Uber confirmed the situation with her.

Who are the Guardians of the Galaxy and why should you care? Marvel Studios gave lucky fans a nice long look at the weird team of space heroes during an extended sneak preview of the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

The 17 minutes of footage introduced the five key players: Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord (played by Chris Pratt); talking raccoon Rocket and his treelike buddy/protector Groot; beefy blue badass Drax the Destroyer (part-time WWE wrestler Dave Bautista); and steely, green-skinned assassin Gamora (Zoe Saldana). It also gave us a sustained looked at the movie’s not-so-secret weapon: humor.

At the Wall Street Journal‘s D8 conference back in 2010, Steve Jobs predicted that tablets such as the iPad would eventually overtake the personal computer for the majority of people. Five years after he made that prediction, it seems as though it may be set to come true.

According to research firm Gartner, worldwide shipments of tablets will top the PC market by next year — with traditional PCs and laptops shipping a combined 317 million units in the year, while tablet shipments will top 320 million. This year, tablets ship in the region of 256 million, against 308 million PCs.

Calling itself a social networking app for just two people, Avocado has long been one of the favorite apps of me and my wife. For everything from sending little reminders of affection in the form of digital hugs, to letting you know when your partner’s phone is about to die, it’s a fantastic Swiss Army knife of tools for people in a relationship.

With Avocado’s 2.1 update, though, that Swiss Army knife has gained one more tool: Google Calendar sync. And it’s about time.