Cult of Mac

The iPhone 6 Plus bends because it’s thin and aluminium, right? Wrong, according to a poster on Imgur, who has analysed photos of the contorting iPhone phablet and places the blame instead on a badly-designed metal reinforcement.

Apple added a new feature to iOS 8 that makes it harder for retailers to track your location by snooping info broadcast over WiFi, but after digging into the MAC randomization feature, a security researcher has found some bad news: it only works if you’ve got cellular data turned off.

The Mac randomization feature which debuted at WWDC, promises to limit retailers’ abilities to track your iPhone when you go to the mall, by sending a random MAC address, instead of the code can be used to grab your iPhone’s unique device ID and location, but users will have to turn off their cellular data connection to start broadcasting random MAC addresses.

You already know that Cult of Mac Deals brings you top level gadgets, software, and services at low prices. Did you also know that some stuff at Cult of Mac Deals is available for free?

Yep, free, as in absolutely no charge whatsoever, and today is Freebie Friday. Check out these exciting offers that won’t hit you in the pocket book.

Security researchers recently uncovered a bug in Bash, a core shell tool used in Linux and Unix computers for the last couple of decades. OS X is built on Unix, so concern arose about the Mac’s vulnerability to hackers exploiting Bash to remotely run code without the user’s consent.

Dubbed “Shellshock,” the exploit has been compared to the Heartbleed hack from earlier this year. Apple has quelled everyone’s fears by saying that the “vast majority of OS X users” are not vulnerable to Shellshock.

The best podcast client on mobile is now available in your browser. Shifty Jelly has today made its Pocket Casts web player available for limited beta testing, and it delivers all of the awesome features you’ve long been enjoying on Android and iOS.

Chuck Jones has an interesting post up on the Forbes site, in which he theorizes about how much ‘bendgate’ could wind up costing Apple — with an (unlikely) maximum hit potentially being in the hundreds of millions.

Jones weighs up the different ways Apple and customers may respond to the meme, including consumers potentially being put off buying the new iPhone 6 Plus, to Apple undergoing a full-on redesign.

Mesmerizing slow-motion videos have flooded the Internet in the last few days, showcasing the kind of amazing footage you rarely see outside a movie theater or Blu-ray disc.

What opened the floodgates? The iPhone 6. The device’s camera and software allows for a mind-boggling 240 frames-per-second shooting rate, letting videographers of all abilities try their hands at slowing down the action and making an impact.

Slow motion has long been used in your favorite films to convey the intensity of a moment (think The Matrix or anything by John Woo), but this is the first time the average consumer has this kind of stunning tech in their hands.

With more than 10 million iPhone 6 and 6 Plus units sold already, we’ll undoubtedly get slammed with even more beautiful slow-motion videos in the weeks and months to come. Here are a bunch we’ve found that show off the startling capabilities of the iPhone 6 while also proving that, seriously, people will film anything.

Before the iPhone 6, the reason Apple decided on 3.5-inch and then 4-inch displays was to allow for the entire screen to be easily within reach of your thumb when using your iPhone with a single hand. Now that the iPhone 6 starts at a massive 4.7 inches, you’re going to need a bigger thumb.

Like this one! Thanko, a Tokyo-based maker of electronic crapcessories, has just delivered unto the market its magnum opus: a soft, silicon-based “finger stylus” that extends your thumb up to 0.6 inches, helping you reach the far corners of your iPhone 6 Plus with one hand.

Almost everyone is happy about iOS 8’s recent privacy upgrade, which means that Apple can’t unlock your phone as part of an investigation. Almost everyone, that is, except for the FBI.

Speaking with reporters Thursday, FBI director James Comey described himself as “very concerned” by steps tech companies like Apple are taking to strengthen privacy on mobile devices.

“I am a huge believer in the rule of law, but I am also a believer that no one in this country is beyond the law,” Comey said. “What concerns me about this is companies marketing something expressly to allow people to place themselves above the law.”

Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is the new owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. No surprise, then, that our favorite sweaty iOS hater is banning iPhones and iPads on the court.

From Need for Speed Most Wanted to Real Racing 3, there are some great driving-based games for iOS. None are quite like Torque Burnout, though.

Promising to combine the most fun bits of every racing game ever into a standalone title, the forthcoming mobile game from developer League of Monkeys is basically an excuse to just do donuts… over and over again.

Unless you’re talking about critically endangered species, using up a sizable percentage of the world’s anything is an impressive benchmark. When that’s 25 percent of the world’s RAM, though — a critical component of every smartphone, tablet and ultrabook on Earth — only Apple is capable of placing those kinds of orders.

This week on The CultCast: Bendgate! Some say it’s Antennagate 2.0, but is there a legitimate issue happening here? We’ll tell you what we think about these “bent” iPhones… Then, we’ve used it for a whole week—catch our updated impressions of iPhone 6. Plus, why you should hold off on installing iOS 8.0.1, and what you can do if you already have. And finally, it’s not just the big screen, there might be another reason the iPhone 6 has been impossible to buy. We’ll tell you our stories from launch day…

Heartily guffaw 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 lynda.com for sponsoring this episode! Learn virtually any application at your own pace from expert-taught video tutorials at lynda.com.

Click on for the show notes.

While customers in the U.S. have been playing with (and bending) their iPhone 6 devices for a week now, today marks the sales debut of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in 22 secondary markets.

These include Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.

Due to time zone differences, New Zealand customers have had their handsets for a full day already, while Twitter’s now buzzing with reports from plenty more excited customers in Europe and elsewhere.

The iPhone 6 originally launched in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the UK on September 19, racking up a massive 10 million+ sales during its first weekend.

We’ll have to wait and see how it does in today’s 22 new markets, but judging from the below pictures there’s no shortage of enthusiasm.

When you need to move files quickly between two Apple devices, AirDrop is an incredibly useful tool. It started out as a Mac-to-Mac thing, and then iPhone-to-iPhone, but with iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, AirDrop becomes even more powerful: Now you can share files from Mac to iPhone (or iPad) and vice versa.

Here’s how.

Brands were quick to pile on the iPhone 6 Plus Bendgate controversy this week with a heavy serving of scathing tweets and jokes, except in LG’s case, it can’t get enough iPhone either.

LG – makers of the curved LG G Flex smartphone – bragged on Twitter that its phone “doesn’t bend, it flexes… on purpose,” but like countless of ignorant celebrities and brands before them,  their social media mavens didn’t know we can all see their belly busting joke was crafted on an iPhone.

Using an app like Tweetdeck or Tweetbot you can see that the joke was posted using Twitter for iPhone. Which iPhone they were using is anyone’s guess, but I hope they’re taking a few design lessons from it so they can finally start using their own phones someday.

Via: DailyDot

If you were one of the 40,000 unfortunate souls affected by yesterday’s buggy iOS 8.0.1 update that killed cell service and broke Touch ID, the fix is finally here.

Apple has released iOS 8.0.2 to the public and along with fixing any iPhone 6 and 6 Pluses affected by yesterday’s release, it also contains bug fixes for HealthKit, third-party keyboards, and Safari, as well as improvements to the Reachability feature on iPhones 6 and 6 Plus.

The new update can be downloaded straight to your iPhone by going to Settings >> General >> Software Update. You can also grab it from iTunes.

Today Apple spoke out on Bendgate, the international scandal that has set the world ablaze with questions about the iPhone 6 Plus like, “Will it bend?”

“With normal use a bend in iPhone is extremely rare and through our first six days of sale, a total of nine customers have contacted Apple with a bent iPhone 6 Plus,” said Apple in a statement. To further solidify its stance on not making bendy hardware, the company has laid out the five methods it uses to test iPhone durability.

AAPL shares values tanked 3.8% today as PR problems continue to stack up for Apple this week.

The disastrous release of iOS 8.0.1, along with the Bendgate controversy that has left the Internet LOLing has shaken investors’ confidence in AAPL this week, and they’re taking the rest of the stock market down with them.

Kyle Wiens has seen the insides of just about every gadget under the sun, and he’s not surprised that the iPhone 6 Plus is susceptible to bending.

Wiens is CEO of iFixit, which is famous for its insightful teardowns of Apple products, and he says there’s nothing wrong with the design of the iPhone 6 Plus.

It’s long and thin. Duh — it’ll bend.

“I’m not surprised that it’s happening,” he told Cult of Mac in an email. “It’s thinner than other phones and metal bends.”

One of the hottest iPhone games in Russia right now isn’t Angry Birds or Candy Crush, but an app that lets you collect bottles as a homeless person.

Homeless: Life Simulator, which just launched in the United States, recently hit the No. 1 spot in the Russian App Store’s role-playing games category.

“Begin your life as an unknown homeless to become a president of your country!” says the marketing copy on the App Store.

The app itself looks really basic — screen-spanning buttons, a couple of casino mini-games and that’s about it. Apparently, being homeless is fun in Russia, because you can gamble your way to success!

The weirdest thing? It’s not the only “homeless” simulator going.

Bendgate has taken over the Internet the last three days with reports claiming the iPhone 6 Plus bends in users’ pockets during normal everyday use, but after staying silent on the issue all week, Apple is finally speaking out against Bendgate, claiming the issue is ‘extremely rare.’

We are three days into the Bendgate controversy, and while Apple says they’re seriously investigating why iPhone 6 Pluses are bending in users’ pockets, the company’s competitors and other brands are piling onto the controversy with a steady stream of bending jokes for the social media masses.

Everyone from Coca-Cola to Whattaburger are joining Samsung, LG, and Nokia in making fun of Apple’s flexible iPhone problem, and the results are absolutely hilarious.

Check out today’s funniest Bendgate brand jokes:

Today Instagram updated Hyperlapse with a feature it’s calling “selfielapse.” While the app was previously restricted to the rear shooter, the iPhone’s front facing camera can now be used to take time lapse videos.

Hyperlapse’s design has also been updated to be at home on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.