Cult of Mac

The Chinese authorities are staging a “man-in-the-middle” attack on Apple’s iCloud service in an attempt to steal username and password information, according to anti-censorship watchdog group GreatFire.org.

As per Wikipedia, a man-in-the-middle attack “is a form of active eavesdropping in which the attacker makes independent connections with the victims and relays messages between them, making them believe that they are talking directly to each other over a private connection, when in fact the entire conversation is controlled by the attacker.”

GreatFire.org first noticed the apparent attack when it became aware of the fact that certain connections made to Apple’s iCloud site in China no longer responded with a trusted digital certificate, thereby risking decryption.

In Spike Jonze’s film Her, Joaquin Phoenix plays a man who falls in love with a Siri-like “digital assistant,” played by Scarlett Johansson. But falling in love with Siri doesn’t just happen in the movies. In The New York Times, there is a beautiful piece about a 10-year-old autistic boy named Gus whose best friend is Siri.

Today marks the official roll-out of Apple’s long-awaited mobile payments service, Apple Pay. But while paying for items in-store using your iPhone is definitely an exciting prospect, Cupertino expects in-app purchases will make up the vast majority of early transactions, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Shanghai’s #Unicom store offers alteration service to enlarge pants’ pockets so to fit #iphone6 pic.twitter.com/uvjuTskGcn

— People's Daily,China (@PDChina) October 17, 2014

Is your iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus just too big for your skinny jeans? You’re not alone: a store in China is actually keeping a tailor on hand to enlarge pants for customers who can’t fit their new smartphones in their pockets.

Particularly if you work with computers, Dropbox is one of the most useful tools available, and a new update for its official iOS app has just made it handier than ever.

Adding support for Touch ID, iOS 8 users now have the ability to unlock their Dropbox with a fingerprint. In addition, the update also adds support the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, along with sorting out general stability and performance issues, such as a fix for previewing rich text format files on iOS 8.

Spotify is finally allowing music lovers to share their subscriptions with their family and friends with a new Spotify Family plan. Prices starts at just $14.99 a month for up to two, while the top tier $29.99 a month plan allows one subscription to be shared with up to five people.

Now that Marc Newson is one of Apple’s design bigwigs, the guys at Curved Labs wondered what sort of new products might result from the collaboration.

Their concept? An updated AirPort WiFi router that is also a smart smoke and CO2 detector, a la Nest Protect.

Having previously taken a crack at the smartwatch market with its now-discontinued SPOT technology, Microsoft is looking to get back into the wearables space according to a report from Forbes, citing anonymous sources.

The watch will apparently be launched in the next few weeks and will work across a variety of platforms, which makes perfect sense since Windows Phone is a distant third compared to Android and iPhone handsets.

Its timing is an effort to capture the potentially-lucrative holiday market.

Hit TV show Family Guy followed a trajectory that’s very similar to Apple’s. The show appeared as a breath of fresh air early on, underwent a decline during which it almost vanished, then made a triumphant return.

In that way, Family Guy always seemed a perfect fit for iOS. Earlier this year, that pairing finally happened when developer TinyCo debuted Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff, a mobile game that follows Peter Griffin and the rest of the Fox TV show’s colorful supporting cast as they rebuild the town of Quahog after it’s been destroyed.

Six months down the line — and with the game currently in the middle of a haunting, courtesy of its Halloween update — Cult of Mac spoke with the developers about Seth McFarlane, making games funny, and the perils of in-app purchases.

The NBA season is set to tip off on October 28th and Beats is ready to celebrate with a new epic ad all about King James’ return to Cleveland.

The long cinematic ad is similar to Beats’ incredible World Cup ad, and flashes between LeBron’s fierce workout regimen he went through this summer – while rocking the Beats earbuds of course – as well as showing spurts from his past like St. Vincent-St. Mary high school, his old Spring Hill apartments, and his mom.

Check it out:

This week has seen some pretty awesome offers at Cult of Mac Deals.

Today we put a brief spotlight on just a few of the best to make sure no one misses out on a good thing. Of course, you can go to Cult of Mac Deals to see every single deal at any time.

Fresh off the Apple event! Catch our impressions of iPad Air 2, the iPad Mini 3, the big, beautiful iMac with 5K display, and the updated Mac Mini. Plus, our favorite Yosemite and iOS 8.1 Continuity features; and HBO makes a move to offer all us cable cutters the a la cart TV we’ve always wanted.

Snicker your way through each week’s best Apple stories! Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the chuckles begin.

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Squarespace 7 is live, and it’s their biggest update in years. Now building a beautiful website is faster and easier than ever. Get started with a free trial at Squarespace.com and use code “CultCast” at checkout for 10% off any order.

There are dozens of hot deals on far out gizmos, software, and services at Cult of Mac Deals everyday. They are constantly on the look out to bring you new and exciting offers.

As new deals begin, other ones that have been around a while have got to go. We don’t want to see you miss out, so act fast as these limited time deals are just about done.

The folks at iFixit have already gotten their hands on a new 27-inch Retina iMac, and their teardown reveals everything you need to know about the machine’s innards.

Thanks to a rear access door, the RAM in the new iMac remains user upgradable without needing to open the case. Most of the iMac’s internal design has stayed the same from last year’s model.

OS X Yosemite packs a lot of new features inside a cleaner, flatter interface on the Mac. It’s a big upgrade, and there’s a lot to take in at first glance.

Whether you’re a Mac novice or a seasoned expert, there’s plenty to explore in the latest version of OS X. Wondering how to get started? Here are some of the best tips and tricks for getting the most out of Yosemite: 

Filmed on location at the Alyeska resort in Alaska, the Alaskan wilderness, and the Golden Alpine lodges in Canada, this incredible film of extreme skiing will light up your screens on October 19.

The 12-minute video was created to show off the color and light technology of Phillips Ambilight TV. To do so, the filmmakers created LED ski suits and let loose their pro skiers in the Alaskan and Canadian mountains.

Check out the gorgeous preview in the short teaser below.

iCloud passwords and security passwords can be guessed using social networking and various phishing techniques, and complex passwords and two-step verification are not as intuitive as they should be.

In a delightfully complete article over at TidBITS, author Rich Mogul lays out the facts behind the current spate of Apple security problems – most of which boil down to this: People are the weakest link in the chain.

As anyone who’s worked with technology in the past decade can tell you, the thorniest technical challenges aren’t typically those that deal directly with hardware and software. No, in most cases, the toughest things to troubleshoot and fix lie along the human spectrum. System administrators have long known this, coming up with acronyms like PEBCAK and ID-10T errors.

The same goes for security, which in Apple’s case affects an ever-increasing number of people who not be savvy to the ways of information security.

Apple’s latest iPhones have been shipping for a few weeks now, but many have been waiting for Google to show its hand before deciding what will be their new smartphone for the next two years. So how does the new Nexus 6 compare to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, and more importantly, which is most worthy of your hard-earned cash?

Our in-depth comparison below will help you decide.

Tim Cook called the iPhone 6 the fastest-selling smartphone in history during yesterday’s Apple event. It’s set a new high-water mark for the most first-month orders ever, and if you need any more evidence, just look at this line outside the Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York City today.

It’s been a month since the iPhone 6 launched and the line is still down the street. Unlike a month ago, Asian resellers can’t be blamed for the length, as China just got its fingers all over the bigger-than-big displays this morning.

Apple didn’t announce how many iPhones it sold in the first month – although we might find out during Monday’s earnings call – but with 32 countries accepting orders in the first few weeks, and another 36 getting it this month, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are poised to be Apple’s biggest cash machines ever.

Everyone loves to get something at a discount. But what if you could slash prices on your own and just decide for yourself what you want to pay? That’s the beauty of The Name Your Own Price offers at Cult of Mac Deals.

As the title suggests, you decide what you want to pay to receive part of a bundle. Beat the average price paid and you get everything in the bundle. Plus, 10% of what you pay goes to your choice of three charities: Child’s Play, World Wildlife Fund, and Creative Commons. With The Name Your Own Price offers, it’s a win for everyone. Have a look at these four Name Your Own Price bundles and get in the action today.

Apple’s new iPads are now available to pre-order through the Apple Online Store. Prices start at $399 for the iPad mini 3 and $499 for the iPad Air 2, and both will be delivered to your door next week.

Christian Bale has reportedly been tapped to don Steve Jobs’ black turtleneck in the upcoming biopic from Sony, and I got to admit I’m stoked. Bale seems like the perfect fit. He looks as much like Steve as Ashton did, only he’s actually a phenomenal actor.

Conan is pretty excited about the Dark Knight playing el Jobso too. So much so, that last night he gave us a hilarious sneak preview of how Bale’s portrayal of Jobs will probably turn out.

Check it out:

If you’re an Rdio user, great news. The official iOS app has just been updated to optimize the music-streaming service for iOS 8. And it gets even better if you happen to have an automobile with CarPlay installed.

Are you looking for a high tech, upscale beverage maker to go along with your brand new 5K 27-inch Retina iMac?

If so you could do a lot worse than this revolutionary BKON Craft Brewer, a machine that allows you to make the perfect cup of loose-leaf tea, coffee, cocktail, and a variety of other drinks from your home, without the need for an intensive training course and plenty of spare time.

How does it do it? In one word: physics.

Some of the best tech ideas come from taking two separate concepts and trying to merge them together into one device.

With all the chatter about smartwatches and smartphones as of late, it was only going to be so long before someone tried to combine the two: creating a gadget that gives smartwatch-like functionality while on the wrist, but also allows the user to take it off and use it like a smartphone when necessary.

That’s the idea behind .klatz, a Ukrainian “smartwatch/watchphone” project that’s currently raising money on Indiegogo. Its creator points out its iOS support — which means that you can pair it with an iPhone if you don’t fancy using it as your primary handset — while a promo video for the project shows it providing Pebble-style notifications, along with fitness tracking and music playing functionality.