Mobile menu toggle

Mega-investor Carl Icahn calls buying AAPL a ‘no-brainer’

By

Carl Icahn is coo-coo for AAPL.
Carl Icahn is coo-coo for AAPL.
Photo: Forbes

Apple just had a killer quarter. In fact, it was the most profitable quarter for any company in history. As such, Apple stock is up 5 percent since Wednesday trading.

But has Apple peaked? Not according to legendary investor Carl Icahn, who recently told CNBC that he was not only raising his own Apple stock price target, but called buying AAPL a “no-brainer.”

How to get rid of the predictive text suggestions on your iPhone

By

With predictive text enabled. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
With predictive text enabled. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

iOS 8 brought with it a couple of keyboard changes — adding support for predictive text suggestions when you’re using the built-in iOS keyboard.

This is pretty great stuff, unless it bugs you to have three words or phrases at the top of your keyboard. If that’s you, then here’s a simple way to disable the “feature.”

FTC goes after TracFone for ‘unlimited’ data throttling

By

This sort of promotion is what got TracFone in trouble. Photo: StraightTalk
This sort of promotion is what got TracFone in trouble. Photo: StraightTalk

Although unlimited data was a promise carriers like AT&T once used to lure potential customers to their network, it doesn’t really exist anymore. Even if you have an unlimited data contract, carriers will throttle your connection once you push a certain data allowance every month.

Yet it’s starting to look like the Federal Trade Commission might be moving against carriers that throttle so-called “unlimited” connections. The FTC just smashed TracFone with a $40 million fine for throttling customers of its unlimited data service.

Will flying cars ever get off the ground?

By

The Curtiss Autoplane in 1917 is considered the first flying car. It hopped but never got far off the ground.
The Curtiss Autoplane in 1917 is considered the first flying car. It hopped but never got far off the ground.

The first airplane was in flight for 12 seconds and flew 120 feet. But it was enough to send imaginations airborne.

  Not long after Kitty Hawk, aviators were trying to figure out how to fly a car.

Glenn Curtiss was the first with the Autoplane in 1917. It had a triwing, looked like a Model T and hopped. Before he could actually get its wheels off the ground, World War I broke out and Curtiss diverted his energy toward building aircraft for the U.S. Army.

While we have figured out how to put people in space, we’re still tinkering with a future that has yet to arrive. If you’re waiting for George Jetson’s future, consider that the car his family flew around in was a 2062 model.

Visualize Apple’s historic earnings with this awesome web app

By

This web app will put Apple's historic earnings in more human terms. Photo: Cult of Mac
This web app will put Apple's historic earnings in more human terms. Photo: Cult of Mac

Yesterday, Apple announced that it had a monster quarter. In Q4, it sold 74.5 million iPhone sales to go along with $74.6 billion in revenue and $18 billion in profits. Not only that, but it broke the record for the most money made by any corporation in history.

Having a hard time figuring out how to quantify numbers like that? Check out this incredible visualizer.

Microsoft’s new Outlook app will change the way you do email

By

post-310496-image-5a139654b57a6cdb4d3d3e049f4d2918-jpg

Back in December, we noted that Microsoft had acquired the popular iOS and Android email app Acompli, which offered a more task-oriented approach to email, with the ability to schedule meetings, edit your calendar, and in your most important emails to the top of the page.

Just under two months on, and Microsoft is launching a cross-platform version of Outlook for the first time ever — incorporating pretty much all the tools previously found in Acompli.

And don’t worry: if you’re not a user of Microsoft’s email services, Outlook also supports Yahoo, iCloud and Gmail accounts.

eBay is planning an Apple Watch app

By

Digital Crown
eBay is planning an Apple Watch app. Photo: Apple
Photo: Apple

At least one of the big boys is planning on developing an app for the Apple Watch. eBay has posted an ad listing, looking for a developer to help them come up with a bidding app for Cupertino’s new smartwatch.

iTunes’ outdated business model is getting eaten alive

By

iTunes downloads have fallen on hard times. Except for the App Store, of course. Photo: Apple
iTunes downloads have fallen on hard times. Except for the App Store, of course. Photo: Apple

Everyone at Apple should be patting themselves on the back after a record-shattering Q1 2015 financial quarter, in which the company raked in $74.6 billion in revenue and an impressive $18 billion in net profits.

But business unit was conspicuous in its absence from Apple’s celebratory earnings call and press release: iTunes.

Now that Apple has filed its 10-Q quarterly report with securities regulators, we now know why: Outside of the App Store’s continued success, iTunes was one of the few areas of Apple business that declined over the last three months. How badly? Read on to find out.

7 retro-inspired iOS games you should’ve been playing yesterday

By

Before we had iPhones to game on, we had these. They didn't even make phone calls. Photo Phil Monger/Flickr CC
Before we had iPhones to game on, we had these. They didn't even make phone calls. Photo Phil Monger/Flickr CC

Every gamer over a certain age has a fondness for the 8- and 16-bit titles they grew up with, so it’s no surprise developers born in the 1980s are now creating nostalgia-infused iOS games harking back to the glory days of the Genesis and S.N.E.S. But which of these should you be playing? Fortunately, Cult of Mac can be your guide.

Pop in another quarter, click the button below, and find out what you need to download to truly be down with the kids thirty-somethings.

Apple and Samsung are tied as world’s top smartphone vendors

By

post-310487-image-e0f8bdb0d731a94d4ad5d44cd96a2f9d-jpg

 

Apple and Samsung were dead even when it came to worldwide smartphone sales in the last three months of 2014, with each company selling 74.5 million handsets around the globe to capture a shade under 20 percent of the total marketshare.

For those keeping track at home, the last time the two were tied so evenly was Q4 2011 — shortly following the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, and just after Tim Cook took over as CEO.

Google gets more app downloads, but Apple’s making the big bucks

By

post-310485-image-ac9b6a050d08692a1c8e7669e88911ec-jpg

Thanks to the plethora of low-cost devices in addition to some higher end smartphones, Android has long been beating Apple’s iOS when it comes to market share. But a new report from app analytics firm App Annie shows just how imprecise this metric is — by comparing total number of app store downloads to actual money generated.

And it sure makes for interesting reading.

As expected, Google’s Play Store experienced 60 percent more app downloads than Apple in 2014. While that sounds like a definite win for the Android loving crowd, Apple’s iOS App Store still managed to generate more money than Google did — to the tune of 70 percent more yearly app revenue.

One of Sundance’s hottest films was shot on an iPhone 5s

By

15470-1-1100

Tangerine has been a breakout hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The indie flick is drawing crowds thanks to a plot that features transgender prostitutes, Hollywood, meth addicts, pimps, and beat cops. But the craziest thing about director Sean Baker’s film is that instead of using a professional camera rig, he shot it all on the iPhone 5s.

Sentient-toast simulator I Am Bread kneads its way on to iOS

By

This bread has legs. No, not really. It's a metaphor. Photo: Bossa Studios
This bread has legs. No, not really. It's a metaphor. Photo: Bossa Studios

Yeah, you read that right – this is a video game where you play as a piece of bread on an epic journey to become an actual piece of toast.

I Am Bread has been out on Steam Early Access since December of last year, and now the developers at Bossa Studios have let it slip that the game will indeed come out on iOS, as soon as they finish up the PC/Mac version.

If you’ve seen the massively viral hit game Goat Simulator, you’ll immediately have a sense of how this one plays out. You’ll hit various keys on your keyboard or buttons on your controller, and move a slice of oddly movable bread around, trying to find some way to toast yourself. Here’s a quick video to visualize it.

Don’t worry about malware, just enjoy your Mac (and maybe win a MacBook Air)

By

One quick selfie could win you a MacBook Air. Photo: Bitdefender
One quick selfie could win you a MacBook Air. Photo: Bitdefender
Photo:

This post is brought to you by Bitdefender.

Macs are not immune to cyberattack and viruses. Though the threats are real, leading antivirus maker Bitdefender doesn’t use scare tactics to warn people about malware targeting Macs.

Instead, Bitdefender is running its Hug a Mac campaign this month. You could win a MacBook Air in this fun competition simply by uploading a selfie of you and your Mac, then tagging it #hugamac to enter the draw. Full details can be found on Bitdefender’s Hug a Mac campaign webpage.

Yahoo really wants to replace Google search in Safari

By

Yahoo is stepping up its security game. Photo: Yahoo
Yahoo has been vying for the default search spot in Safari, and 2015 might be the year it finally happens. Photo: Yahoo

Thanks to contractual obligations that are purportedly ending this year, Google’s days as Safari’s search provider could be numbered. And Yahoo wants to take its spot.

During Yahoo’s quarterly earnings call yesterday, Marissa Mayer reiterated her interest in being Safari’s main search engine. “The Safari platform is basically one of the premier search deals in the world if not the premier search deal in the world,” she said in response to a question about Yahoo’s plans for search.

Meet the official cast of the Steve Jobs movie

By

The official cast of Steve Jobs has been announced. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
The official cast of Steve Jobs has been announced. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Aaron Sorkin’s Steve Jobs movie has been down a hard road on its way to production. Disasters like fickle actors and directors have plagued the project, but filming is finally underway in San Francisco as we speak, and for the first time ever, we have an official cast list.

Universal Pictures announced the official cast for the movie this week as filming has already wrapped up at Jobs’ parents garage. The logline confirms the film will be “set backstage at three iconic product launches and ending in 2001 with the unveiling of the iPod. The film takes us behind the scenes of the digital revolution to paint an intimate portrait of the brilliant man at its epicenter.”

We already knew Michael Fassbender has been tapped to play Jobs, but the official cast list includes a few surprises — like the three different actresses that will play Steve’s daughter — and a veteran Apple PR guru we didn’t see coming.

Here’s the full cast alongside the real-life people they’ll play:

Photos for Mac might be delayed for a while

By

Photo: Apple
Photo: Apple

Let’s face it: iPhoto sucks. It’s slow. It’s buggy. It’s hopelessly burdened by skeuomorphic elements. It’s just behind the times.

That’s why we were excited when Apple said last year it would phase out iPhoto for a brand new app with a feature set somewhere between iPhoto and Aperture. The successor app was supposed to be available in early 2015, but it appears that Photos for Mac has been delayed.

Steve Jobs’ BFF flashes back to their groovy acid trips

By

This guy did LSD with Steve Jobs in college. Photo: CNNMoney
This guy did LSD with Steve Jobs in college. Photo: CNNMoney

What would it be like to drop acid with Steve Jobs?

Daniel Kottke was one of Apple’s first employees, but he knew Jobs from even earlier days at Reed College. The two bonded over their love for meditation and eastern spirituality at Reed. They also did a lot of LSD.

Maximize your Mac’s file system with Smart Folders

By

Smart Folders are my jam. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
Smart Folders are my jam. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

A longtime Cult of Mac reader wrote in with a question about some odd-looking folders she sees on her Mac.

“The ‘All Pictures’ folder has a sprocket looking icon,” she writes. “Same with All PDF documents and Recently Changed documents.

Are these files located elsewhere and if I deleted a file from one of the above folders does it remove it from all my files? Don’t understand the purpose of these.”

Excellent question, for sure. Let’s take a look at what these folders are, and how to use them to their full potential.

Steve Jobs was right: YouTube is finally HTML5-first

By

YouTube is finally HTML5 first. Photo: VentureBeat
YouTube is finally HTML5 first. Photo: VentureBeat

Let’s flash back to April 2010.

That was the month that Steve Jobs penned his famous “Thoughts on Flash” memo, in which he soundly rejected any and all reasons for Apple to adopt Flash on the iOS operating system.

Jobs famously said that Flash was too battery-hungry, too unreliable, too insecure, too slow and too closed to be a wise platform for the mobile-first developers of then-tomorrow. And people scoffed at the time.

But who’s laughing now?

Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell delivers devilish fun and awesome superpowers

By

Saints Row: Gat out of Hell
This weaponized recliner represents sloth. But not so much sloth that you lack the energy to kill every demon you see. Photo: Deep Silver

Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell is a weird game. And I’m not just saying that because it’s about two members of a street gang going to hell to rescue their boss before he or she is forced to marry Satan’s daughter. Because that’s super-weird, don’t get me wrong.

Other than that, Gat is an expansion to 2013’s Saints Row IV that doesn’t require you to own the main game but doesn’t make a whole lot of sense if you haven’t played it. It has a six- to eight-hour story with an additional dozen or so hours of open-world gameplay. Whether you’re new to the series or not, you’re in for its special brand of relentless fun.

Apple stays classy about jailbreakers with iOS 8.1.3 patch notes

By

Even jailbreakers need to unjailbreak sometimes.
Photo: Redmond Pie
Photo: Redmond Pie

When Apple releases a major update like yesterday’s iOS 8.1.3, it’s usual for the company’s coders to fix (or, in other words, break) all known jailbreak exploits.

Not so surprisingly, the latest update is no different. It fixes several exploits that are necessary to run the iOS 8.1.2 jailbreak. But in a classy move, at least Apple gave a hat tip to the jailbreak team for calling their attention to the exploits.

Google’s Eric Schmidt says Steve Jobs is his personal hero (LOL)

By

Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt shaking hands at the original iPhone launch event.
Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt shaking hands at the original iPhone launch event.
Photo: Apple

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt is the anti-Apple. He’s square where Apple is cool, he’s a sputtering doofus where Apple is collected, and he’s prone to hyperbole whereas Apple tends to undersell its products. For example, Schmidt said in 2013 that Android was more secure than the iPhone (LOL).

Given all that, who do you think Schmidt’s personal hero is? Boutros Boutros-Ghali? Shocker! Wrong. It’s Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, naturally. Not that many of those lessons have rubbed off on him, mind you.