Cult of Mac

We’ve already cover the major new features that iOS 8 is bringing to your iPhone today, as well as some hidden tricks too, but if you’re ready to pour over the bible on iOS 8 straight from the mothership you can download it now on iBooks.

Apple published its huge iPhone User Guide for iOS 8 this afternoon as an iBook and its loaded with everything you need to know about the iPhone, and offers some sneak peeks at the new 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhones coming out Friday.

The 182-page guide is broken into 37 section and covers features on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, as well as iPhone 5s, 5c, 5, and 4s. You can grab it on iTunes right now for free.

Don’t expect to bump into Apple’s design guru on your next coach flight. When Jony Ive hits the skies he flies private.

In fact, according to an Apple profile by Business Week, Sir Jony Ive cuts through clouds in the very same Gulfstream jet owned by Steve Jobs during his last years at Apple.

Apple TV updated Wednesday morning, giving the main screen a whole new look and adding Beats Music as a “channel.”

The icons for Music, Computers and TV Shows all have a new, almost pastel look, while all the icons seem a bit flatter, like iOS 8. The fonts seem thinner, as well, reflecting the overall new design ethos of iOS and OS X.

You can also connect to iCloud Photo and Family Sharing options, new iOS 8 features that also went live today for iPhone and iPad devices.

Apple is reportedly aiming to sell upwards of 50 million Apple Watches in 2015.

The news comes via a new report from Digitimes, which claims that Apple has placed orders for shipments of up to five million AMOLED panels per month throughout the year. These screens will be used as the innovative touch-sensitive display for Apple’s wearables debut.

If you’re anxiously waiting on a brand new iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus to come in the mail this week, you’re not alone.

Tracking the package as Apple’s ginormous new smart phone wends its way to you may be the internets new past time. You should have received a tracking number from Apple when your iPhone shipped, but there’s an even easier way to keep a watchful eye on that beautiful new gadget.

iOS 8 introduces a ton of new features and enhancements, including new ways for third-party developers to integrate their apps throughout the iOS experience. With a feature called Extensibility, apps can hook into other apps and areas like Notification Center to enhance their usability and functionality. Third-party keyboards are now possible too, and there are several great ones to choose from already.

Some of the best apps in the App Store are already updated for iOS 8 with new features, and others will be live in the store shortly. Here are Cult of Mac’s best apps that take advantage of what iOS 8 has to offer:

iOS 8 is the biggest release from Apple ever, with hundreds of new APIs and features that will completely change the way you use your iPhone. Features like Handoff, Health and Messages will be huge draws for customers looking for something new from iOS, but Apple’s engineers have also crammed dozens of new little features throughout the mobile OS.

Improved camera tools, battery statistics, new Safari tricks and more are included in today’s gigantic update, but you need to know where to look to find the true gems. Here’s a rundown of 18 incredible iOS 8 features you probably didn’t know about.

A bug in HealthKit caused Apple to pull several fitness apps from its App Store Wednesday morning, just as the company was rolling out its long-awaited iOS 8 update.

Apple said the problem could keep apps compatible with HealthKit, a key component of iOS 8 that facilitates sharing of data among health and fitness apps and hardware, out of the store for weeks. “We’re working quickly to have the bug fixed in a software update and have HealthKit apps available by the end of the month,” Apple said in a statement to Cult of Mac.

Brian Mueller, developer of Carrot Fit, said Apple called and emailed him to say his fitness app had been removed from the App Store due to a last-minute problem with HealthKit. His app, and several others including My Fitness Pal and WebMD for iPhone, are currently unavailable for download.

“The rep couldn’t clarify what was wrong,” Mueller told Cult of Mac in an email, “though users of the app who had already downloaded the update were able to use the HealthKit features without any issue.”

After months of being in beta, Apple has finally released iOS 8 for free to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users. You can grab it now in iTunes or through Software Update.

iOS 8 introduces many new features, including the new Health app, Notification Center widgets, Handoff, actionable notifications, and Extensibility for developers. You’ll start to see many of your favorite apps offer features specific for iOS 8, like the ability to interact directly with other apps.

We’ve been digging into iOS 8 for months now, and we’re collected some of the best features to check out while you’re downloading. We’ll have more in-depth looks at aspects of the new OS throughout the day.

Pre-orders for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus shattered Apple’s previous records and its supplier are still struggling to keep up with demand.

Apple supplier Foxconn has continued to hire more workers to assemble the new iPhone models, reports the Wall Street Journal, but even though they’re already churning out over 500,000 new handsets a day, its 100 production lines operating around the clock in Zhengzhou still can’t keep up.

One of the many new features in iOS 8 is iCloud Drive, which is basically Apple’s take on Dropbox. Unlike how iCloud has functioned in the past, iCloud Drive acts as the hub for all of the files stored by your apps in the cloud.

It’s a great idea, but most people should avoid enabling it during the iOS 8 installation process today.

No matter what you do, a website is a must have. It is simply the easiest and most cost effective way to connect with prospective clients and to stay connected with the ones you’ve already got.

Many people choose to build their websites with WordPress. It’s perfect for blogs, portfolios, marketing, and more. Now you can give your WordPress site an extreme makeover for the better with the WordPress Theme Lifetime Plan at 80% off, just $69, at Cult of Mac Deals.

Apple is set to release iOS 8 later today, followed by the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus later this week, but if new iPads are on your wishlist you might not have to wait much longer.

An iPad event has reportedly been planned by Apple for October 21st, according to the Daily Dot’s Micah Singleton, who says the official launch date of OS X Yosemite will also be announced at the event.

Ever fantasized about being a goat? Of course you haven’t. But you’d be surprised by just how entertaining it can be — especially when that goat is hellbent on destroying everything and near indestructible. With Goat Simulator now available on Android and iOS, that’s exactly what you can be — while at work, in the library, at a coffee shop, or just at home.

iOS 8 is about to be unleash on the world today after debuting earlier this summer at WWDC. Tim Cook is calling it the biggest iOS update ever and for good reason, as the new OS has been packed with hundreds of new tools for developers, as well as new features that make iOS devices, quicker, more productive, and more seamlessly integrated with Mac than ever before.

You won’t see huge visual changes like Apple made with iOS 7 last year, but there’s plenty of features for everyone to be excited about in iOS 8, whether its the new messaging tools, improved camera features, family sharing, Hand-off, or the sleek new Spotlight.

Before you jump headfirst into the biggest iOS release ever, get acquainted with the most important new features in this Cult of Mac guide to iOS 8:

The Apple Watch Sport may start at a mere $349, but the product line’s price point could well soar from there!

According to Daring Fireball‘s John Gruber, Apple’s 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition may sell for as much as $4,999.

“Most people think I’m joking when I say the gold ones are going to start at $5,000,” Gruber writes in a new blog post. “I couldn’t be more serious.”

Part two of Tim Cook’s interview with Charlie Rose recently aired on PBS. While not quite as long or revealing as the first part, it’s still definitely worth watching.

Here are six takeaways we got from part two of Cook’s interview:

Motoring experts in the UK have warned that individuals using their Apple Watch while driving will face the same penalties as those caught using a mobile phone.

The words of caution come from road safety charity the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM), reportedly backed up by the country’s Department of Transport.

In the United Kingdom, this would mean that a driver caught using their Apple Watch while driving faces a £100 ($163) fine and three penalty points on their license.

“An Apple Watch has the potential to be just as distracting as any other smartphone device, indeed more so if you have to take you hand off the wheel to interact with it,” an IAM spokesperson told the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

There may only have been one Steve Jobs, but a recent article from Fast Company draws some interesting parallels between Jobs and Nest CEO, Tony Fadell — previously known as the Apple employee most synonymous with the iPod.

Alongside his obsessive focus on perfection and simplicity, the article notes that Fadell even lives in the same same neighborhood that Jobs once did.

One interesting passage that stands out describes Fadell’s Jobsian approach to management at Nest:

Apple might have smashed its record for preorders with the iPhone 6, but according to a new report from Credit Suisse analysts, profit margins are actually down for the device.

The reason for this is that Apple’s quite literally giving users more for their money: an all-around bigger iPhone which still costs just $649 for its base model.

Production for Apple, however, is considerably more expensive — with the biggest costs being the larger display, improved camera, bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS chips.

I may be in the minority here, but when I think of the type of TV show I’d picture Samsung as, my mind goes to scandalous political thriller House of Cards well before it does to Glee.

Which is, of course, why it makes absolute sense that Samsung is currently in the process of creating its own Glee-style “Musicom” (that’s a sitcom meets musical) centered around the lives of two fictitious young employees. Can’t you practically hear the songs already?

Called Best Future, the series will follow male and female flatmates, and is designed to portray Samsung as the kind of trendy-yet-lovable company people in their twenties and thirties would just love to work for.

ProCam 2 – confusingly now at v3.0 – is the first camera app that allows manual focus and exposure on devices running iOS 8. You now get full manual control of ISO, shutter speed, focus and white balance, all with neat-o on-screen sliders.

Extensions are coming to iOS 8, and Omni shows us just how cool they can be with a new version of OmniFocus 2 for iPhone plus the brand new OmniFocus 2 for iPad.

Early reviews of the latest iPhones are in, and the overwhelming consensuses is that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are both killer smartphones. The 6 is the best phone out there, period. Opinions are more split on the Plus and its massive size.

If you’re having trouble wading through all of the reviews out there, have no fear! We’ve collected everything you need to know in the ultimate iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Meta Review.