Did you know that you can get some great stuff for free at Cult of Mac Deals?
Just go to the Freebies page to get virus protection, access to games, education, and more. Read on for a few notable freebies available right now.
In the lead-up to the iPhone 6, everyone expected Apple to give it a sapphire glass display. Sapphire glass, it was said, would lead to nigh-indestructible screens: Scratched and shattered iPhone displays would become a thing of the past.
Of course, we all know what happened from there. Apple’s sapphire partner, GT Advanced Technologies, completely collapsed, and the iPhone 6 shipped with plain old Gorilla Glass. Yet even if it hadn’t, Apple might not have used sapphire glass, which was much more reflective and harder to read in ambient light than Gorilla Glass.
But here’s the key word: was. A new technology has emerged that might make sapphire glass every bit as good when it comes to viewability as Gorilla Glass.
Update: This story has been modified to more accurately describe the sync capabilities of Fantastical 2, and we’ll have a how-to up on getting Google and iOS to play nice soon.
Readdle’s calendar app, Calendars 5, brings all the natural-language and sync goodness of other high-end calendar apps, along with support for your Google or iOS calendar, to your iPhone and iPad at the same time in one $3 app. Plus? When you add an event to Calendars 5, it shows up on your Google Calendar (or iOS Calendar if you roll that way).
Two-way sync? Natural-language event creation? iOS Reminders support? Recurring events? Invitations? Apple or Google Maps integration? Works offline or online?
This is gonna be your new favorite calendar app, if it isn’t already.
Apple’s retail stores are one of Cupertino’s crown jewels, and the envy of pretty much every tech company out there. A new rumor suggests that online retail giant Amazon might soon be looking to replicate Apple’s success with its own line of brick-and-mortar stores. But how will they get them? By buying up old Radio Shack stores and rebranding them.
Apple has been working on iOS 8.2 for a while now. Just yesterday, they released iOS 8.2 beta 5 to developers, introducing new changes to WatchKit, the new API for Apple Watch developers.
Given how many betas of iOS 8.2 have come out so far, you might expect that its public release is right around the corner. But a new report suggests we have a long way to go, and the release of iOS 8.2 will be accompanied by an official Apple event — as well as the new MacBook Air.
When you consider their overall functionality, and just plain popularity among kids, it’s no great revelation that the iPad has a bright future in the education market. Apple clearly think so too, as it’s pushed for some big deals in the area, while also offering favorable rates to schools willing to adopt Apple’s tablet.
But while I can clearly how iPads could be great in a school setting, it’s all too rare that you truly see an app that makes you sit up and say, “That’s the future of education as we know it.” However, that’s exactly the feeling I got when I saw Earth Primer, an app which describes itself as “A Science Book for Playful People.”
Just as the iPhone made you sit up and realize that one day all phones would work like that (a mantra Xiaomi and Samsung took a little bit too literally), so Earth Primer represents the next step in textbooks. And as steps go, this one’s a pretty big one.
Like millions of photography fans, the iPhone is my main camera. In fact, ever since my Nikon D600 took a suicidal, lens-first dive off a cliff and into a waterfall, my iPhone has become my only camera.
I’m always trying to eke out a little extra performance from my iPhone’s tiny camera sensor with new apps, tripods and lenses. Over the last three months, Cult of Mac has been testing various lenses for the iPhone 6 in a search for the best aftermarket glass. I’ve narrowed the field down to two top choices: the new Olloclip and Moment’s mountable lens system.
Unfortunately, iPhone 6 users can’t actually use both the Olloclip and Moment lenses at the same time. But if you’ve been considering getting new photo gear for your iPhone 6, we’re ready to break down the pros and cons of these aftermarket accessories.
In a sea of tablets and smartphones, PC sales have been slowly sinking for years. Not so with Apple, however. In fact, bolstered by the growing “halo effect” from its other products, MacBooks and iMac sales have been buoyant for ages — and that trend isn’t likely to change in 2015.
According to sources on the supply side, Apple orders of Mac-series notebooks and desktops are set to grow between 10-15 percent this year, selling a hefty 20-23 million units.
PCs? Not so much.
Coming off a monster financial quarter, things are pretty good in Cupertino right now. But if Tim Cook didn’t have enough to smile about over his morning coffee, here’s one more: Apple has overtaken U.S. sales of Android devices for the first time since 2012.
According to figures pulled by market research team Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, the holiday quarter was a massive one for Apple as far as market share goes — with iOS devices picking up 47.7 percent of sales, compared to Android’s 47.6 percent.
Having gone “thermonuclear war” on Google after it discovered that it was following Apple into smartphones, Apple may be about to turn the tables on its Mountain View rivals — by entering the search engine business.
Apple is currently looking to hire an engineering project manager for something called Apple Search. The position would be based in San Francisco, and requires a program manager to oversee backend operations for a “search platform supporting hundreds of millions of users.”
The ad notes that the successful candidate will, “Play a part in revolutionizing how people use their computers and mobile devices.”
File this under “unbelievable,” but according to reports from the Bay Area, multiple black vans owned by Apple have been spotted driving around San Francisco with a fancy camera array on top that may indicate the company is developing a self-driving car.
The vehicles have also been spotted in Brooklyn and could be designed to create a competitor to Google Street View. But after looking at the camera array, which is much different than Street View cars, some experts are convinced it’s a self-driving car prototype.
Get a look at the vans in the video below:
The SXSW Film Festival lineup revealed today that Academy Award-winning documentarian Alex Gibney will show his latest film, Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, for the first time next month in Austin, Texas.
Details on the documentary are scant, but the SXSW blurb describes Gibney’s creation as “an evocative portrait of the life and work of Steve Jobs that re-examines his legacy and our relationship with the computer.”
Here’s the official synopsis:
ARM holdings, the company behind the mobile processor architecture that powers the iPhone and iPad, unveiled its next generation processor blueprints today that it says will increase performance three fold compared to its current designs.
The new Cortex-A72 chips aimed at smartphone and tablets will make their debut next year — just in time for the iPhone 7 — and also use 75% less power while maintaining the same level of performance as today’s ARM processors, paving the way for thinner, more powerful iPhones in the future.
Almost three quarters of iOS users have upgraded to the newest version of Apple’s mobile operating system, according to the latest stats shared by the company.
As measured by visits to the App Store on February 2, Apple claims that 72 percent of active iOS devices are running iOS 8 — compared to 25 percent who are sticking with iOS 7, and a minuscule 3 percent using earlier iterations. It’s not quite at the 80 percent+ mark that iOS 7 was at this time last year, but next to Android’s pitiful numbers, it’s still got to be considered a runaway hit for Apple.
Read on to find out what’s driving the move.
We’ve known that a big redesign of Tweetbot for Mac has been in the works for awhile, and now Tapbots designer Mark Jardine has shared a little tease with the world.
You’ve surely seen the ultra-expensive Super Bowl commercials by now (and if you haven’t check out our round up), but I doubt you took time to recreate your favorites as stop-motion Lego animations.
That’s precisely what A+C Studios did, however, over the last 36 hours since the commercials aired.
Check it out below for some great Lego animation.
Swipe down from the top of your iPhone (or iPad) screen and you’ll see the new iOS 8 Notification Center. It’s got two sections — Notifications on the right and Today on the left. Tap on the Today button and you’ll see all the new widgets arrayed in their default order.
You can add your calendar, weather, stocks and any one of hundreds of third-party app that has widget support.
The great thing is that you’re not stuck with the default order, or even the default apps — this part of Notification Center is totally customizable. Here’s how to make it your own.
Chances are you’ve got a camera within a few feet of you at all times. Though we all have cameras built into our mobile devices, more people are choosing to purchase digital SLR cameras that rival ther equipment professional photographers use due to their increasing affordability. With all these cameras at our disposal every single day, shouldn’t we know how to take inspiring pictures?
The quickest answer is ‘yes, we should.’ That is why Cult of Mac Deals, for a limited time only, is offering the Adobe KnowHow Photography Skills Course Bundle at an impressive 91% off so everyone can learn how to take amazing photographs like an expert.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen vast improvements to lithium-ion batteries, which power the portable gadgets we rely on today. But that’s all about to change, thanks to a company called SolidEnergy.
Born out of MIT in 2012, the startup has built a battery that stores more energy than that inside Apple’s iPhone 6, but measures half the size.
Luca Maestri controls the purse strings of the most profitable company in the world, so it’s no wonder why he was just named the most admired CFO in the world.
Apple’s money man won nearly one in four votes among top Fortune 500 CFO’s of the world in Model N’s annual rankings. His company announced last week that it made more profits in the last three months than any company in history.
HTC does some pretty terrific things — its One M8 is a prime example of that. But it does some downright ridiculous things, too, like producing its own rap videos.
Yes, you read that right: The Taiwanese company has produced a rap video that explains the many advantages the One M8 has over its rivals, and trashes competing products like the iPhone 6 and Samsung’s Galaxy S5.
Anyone holding onto the mistaken belief that Apple waited too long to launch a big-screen iPhone got their correction during Apple’s recent earnings call, when the company revealed it shipped a massive 74.5 million iPhones during the last three months of 2014 — representing more than half of Apple’s total revenue for the quarter.
iPhone 6 mania isn’t going away anytime soon, either, according to estimates provided by sources in Apple’s supply chain. Based on orders received, manufacturers reportedly expect Apple to ship more than 50 million additional iPhones by the end of March.
Have you ever had an Apple product bite the dust only a few months after its warranty or AppleCare expired? Out-of-warranty repair costs can easily soar into the hundreds of dollars for Apple products, but if you purchased your Mac using a credit card that offers extended-warranty protection, you might be able to get that money back.
Many credit cards offer purchase-protection and extended warranties, which are usually included as a free benefit for qualifying purchases made using the card. I recently had a MacBook Air die. It was over three years old, so it was no longer covered by Apple’s One-Year Limited Warranty or AppleCare. Fortunately, I purchased it using an American Express credit card and, therefore, AMEX’s extended-warranty program gave me extra coverage.
Read on to learn how Apple repaired my broken MacBook Air and AMEX reimbursed the cost — saving me nearly $300.
Apple may eventually merge OS X and iOS, but I can’t see it happening any time soon. In an interview last year, Phil Schiller dismissed the idea of combining both (exactly what Microsoft recently announced plans to do with Windows 10) as an enormous “waste of energy.”
If you’d like to see what an iOS/OS X mashup could look like, however — and you have a jailbroken iOS device, to boot — you can check out the latest tweak from jailbreak developer Evan Swick.
Called Harbor, the tweak is described by Swick as “the ultimate dock tweak” and brings the OS X Yosemite dock to any device running iOS 8 — offering you a whole new way of launching apps on your iPhone or iPad.
And you know what? It’s actually pretty great.
Like most things that come in small sizes, pico projectors have always been a big disappointment.
Called “pico” because of their portability and battery power, the diminutive projectors in this class have typically been underpowered and underwhelming. Almost by definition, projectors need to be big and bright enough to throw a lot of light at the screen.
So it’s a big surprise that Celluon’s new featherweight pocket-size PicoPro is a heavyweight champ. I was prepared for it to suck — but was surprised and delighted when it turned my living room wall into a 150-inch cinema screen.