Cult of Mac

How do you celebrate the arrival of a new member of the family? If you’re super Apple fan and former training manager for the Apple Online Store team Andreas Kleinke the answer is that you announce it in the same way Apple introduces a new product.

Adopting the minimalist design Apple is known for, Kleinke created a website for his new baby Jonathan, describing his son’s “20-inch seamless unibody enclosure,” “ten meticulously aligned fingers” and “maximum volume going all the way up to 120 dB.”

The site notes that parental sleep mode is disabled by default, and that gibberish comes as the pre-installed language, although additional language packs are available.

“The response has been truly amazing,” Kleinke tells Cult of Mac. “We already got hundreds emails from all around the globe, and there’s not a single mean one among them. Only very friendly people wishing the best. I’m sure Jonathan will be pleased, once he gets over that whole screaming thing.”

I’m torn these days between wanting a functional wallet-style case for my iPhone and something a bit more minimalist. I tend to switch cases as I need them because I haven’t found a one-case-fits-all solution that works for me.

The minimalist new AL13 metallic bumper case for iPhone 5 or iPhone 5s is quite a classy little addition to your important iOS device, combining good protection with looks that invite stares. It’s got all the great stuff of its ultrathin predecessor, but it’s also easier to put on and doesn’t have any issues with dropped calls due to signal loss.

It’s a bear to get off, though, so if you like to change your iPhone case as often as you change your mood, you’ll probably be a bit frustrated.

September 9 seems all but officially confirmed as the date when Apple will unveil its eagerly-anticipated iPhone 6, but when can users expect to get their hands on Apple’s next generation handset?

According to a new report coming out of China — from PCinLife, the country’s top IT portal — Apple’s new flagship phone will be available in stores between the 16th and 19th of September. This tallies with another earlier rumor from May, in which a German retailer stated that the iPhone 6 would hit the market on September 19: suggesting that this date may be the global date.

Ports of popular console and arcade game series can be hit-and-miss on iOS, but Namco Bandai’s Ridge Racer Slipstream definitely falls into the “hit” category.

An iOS game which pulls together a lot of the best vehicles and tracks from previous Ridge Racer games, Ridge Racer Slipstream has just been updated for the first time since March adding two brand new race tracks, four new Class 1 vehicles (including the Kamata Synci, Kamata RC410, and Lucky Wild Evolver), Masters’ Class career content, and support for MFi game controllers.

The price-slashing continues. How on the heels of Walmart cutting the price of the iPhone 5s to $79 and the iPhone 5c to $0.79, T-Mobile will take up to $50 off the price of any iPhone, starting today.

I recently watched The Lady try to convince a friend of ours to download WhatsApp. The friend is moving to the United Kingdom, and we want to stay in touch. Our friend tried to say that email would do the job, but we all know that will never work.

Our friend doesn’t want WhatsApp (maybe because it’s owned by Facebook), and she doesn’t own an iPhone, so iMessage is out. Thankfully, there are plenty of free and good alternatives. Some are more secure, some have more features, and none of them is owned by Facebook.

Let’s take a look at what’s available and how these very different messaging apps compare on a number of key features.

Peak iPhone 6 rumor season is upon us and in just a few short weeks we really will know what Apple’s next smartphone(s) will look like. Until Tim Cook actually takes the stage though, the leaks will keep flooding in, but none are sure to be as juicy as what vlogger Doldo411 just uncovered over at the Second City Network.

Thanks to sources close to the situation, Doldo411 got an exclusive first look at the iPhone 6, and after performing a quick teardown, reveals the new iPhone design is definitely thicker but more flexible that previous designs.  It also comes with a delicious new case with gradient wood paneling. If this isn’t the real iPhone, it’s at least the funniest leak of the year.

Take a look:

Splitting dinner checks with friends in the age of credit cards and no cash has become increasingly complex, but Square Cash for iOS just received a huge redesign and feature update today that makes paying back a buddy as easy as sending a text.

Square Cash 2.0 now enables anyone to request money from up to 25 people at once, even if they don’t use the app, and best of all there aren’t any fees.

For a company as secretive as Apple, one of the few ways you can learn anything about what it has planned next is to see who it has been hiring. High-profile hires say a lot about where Apple’s priorities are for the future.

Looking back at the hires Apple has brought on over the last year reveals something pretty obvious: it’s assembling a wearables and fashion dream team.

While overweight kids have long been prime targets for bullies, activists are calling out smartphone apps that make anyone look fat.

“Applications such as “Fatify,” “Fatbooth,” “Fat You” and others greatly perpetuate fat-shaming and weight bias in today’s society,” said Joe Nadglowski, president and CEO of the Obesity Action Coalition, in a press release about his organizations campaign against these apps. “Children are the primary users of these types of apps, and the apps are teaching children that the disease of obesity is a funny cosmetic issue, which we know is not true.”

The state of the tablet industry has not been promising lately. Over the last few months Apple reported slumping iPad sales, Best Buy’s CEO declared that tablet sales are “crashing,” and many analysts and pundits have eagerly declared the tablet fab is coming to an end, but Recode’s Walt Mossberg has a few points to make in defense of the tablet.

While IDC expects tablet sales to flatline by the end of 2014, Tim Cook indicated to Mossberg that the future of tablets is still bright, calling the current lull in sales a mere “speed bump.”

Apple is working with suppliers to make a 12.9-inch iPad by early next year, according to Bloomberg.

Although is was rumored that Apple was working on a larger iPad throughout 2013, we have yet to see such a tablet come out of Cupertino. Will 2015 finally be the year of the mythical iPad Maxi?

With ski season closer than you can believe, it’s time to start drooling over the amazing HD footage out there on the web. So you can dream away your workday with these moving images, you’ll need to check out this amazing footage from four powder fanatics who used only Go Pro cameras to film their fresh exploits across the coolest drops in Hokkaido, Japan, Pemberton, British Columbia and Mt. Hood, Oregon.

Check out the extreme shots below and start gathering your lift tickets, high-end goggles and ski wax.

In an amazing twist of celebrity, Community star and rapper Donald Glover has gotten to voice Miles Morales, the Ultimate Spider-Man, in the Disney XD animated series.

As it’s Glover that was the original inspiration behind the alternate universe Spidey, written by comics star Brian Michael Bendis, this is a treat for fans and the actor himself.

“That’s the great part about the Spider-Man costume: He can be anybody,” Glover told USA Today. “Spider-Man could be a girl. Spider-Man could be an old man. You don’t know. So I just tried to be as me as possible, because you’re always just going to bring it back to yourself when you watch the show.”

Check out the clip below as Peter Parker (voiced by Drake Bell) meets Miles Morales, voiced by Glover.

Apple TV added Showtime’s new on-demand video service, Showtime Anytime, to the list of channels available to Apple TV user in the U.S. today.

The Showtime Anytime service has been available on a number of other set-top boxes, including the Roku, Xbox 360, and Amazon’s FireTV, but is finally coming to Apple’s set-top box as it amps up content ahead of a rumored 2015 redesign.

Verizon Wireless announced today that it is preparing to roll out Voice over LTE (VoLTE) support to its millions of subscribers over the next few weeks, just ahead of Apple’s planned release of iOS 8 which is rumored to bring VoLTE support to the iPhone for the first time.

The addition of VoLTE will allow Verizon customers to send and receive voice calls over the faster LTE network, rather than using old technologies like 3G, resulting in high-definition voice calls as well as video.

For decades Mac and the PC have been at each other’s throats, competing for that No. 1 spot in the computing world. Vitriolic ad campaigns and entire product launches aimed at decimating Windows or OS X have firmly established a war that somehow hasn’t ended even in the post-PC era.

With Apple’s release of OS X Yosemite sitting just around the corner, the time for Microsoft to answer with Windows 9 is nearly here. In today’s video, we go into everything we know about OS X Yosemite and what we think we know about Windows 9 so far. We break down all the new features, design elements and more to help you start forming your opinion about which OS is best.

Subscribe to Cult of Mac TV on YouTube to catch all our latest videos.

You’ve got a great web presence. Now, you have to protect it from hackers that want to steal your customer’s information to use for their own personal gain. Don’t let them!

With The White Hat Hacker Bundle, you will learn the skills needed to protect your online presence from those who would do you harm. For a limited time, you can get The White Hat Hacker Bundle at 92% off, that’s just $49, at Cult of Mac Deals.

Later today Instagram will release a new stand alone app for iOS called Hyperlapse, reports Wired, that will allow users to create time lapse videos that are unfathomably smooth thanks to a its accompanying stabilization algorithm.

Rather than bringing it’s stand alone messaging app Bolt into the spotlight, Instagram is releasing its first ever tool for capturing time lapse video, and comes right as Apple is adding time lapse video to iOS 8, only Hyperlapse comes with a few advantages that Apple’s baked-in version doesn’t have.

Amazon is quickly learning that 3D gimmicks and a lack of third-party app support aren’t attributes consumers tend to look for in a smartphone, with one report suggesting that the retail giant has sold fewer than 35,000 Fire Phones since the device made its debut back in July.

Apple may be on the verge of releasing its most generously-sized iPhone yet, but the company is always on the lookout for new ways of providing screen real estate to its users.

A new patent published today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office show how Apple is investigating “Electronic devices with flexible displays,” featuring a flexible display layer overlaid on top of buttons, switchers, speakers, microphones and other components which feature in iOS devices.

Super Battle Tactics is a free-to-play iOS game published by DeNA that has you using virtual tanks to face off against other players or AI opponents; you’ll choose which upgrades and tactics you’ll use your available action points on to outwit and destroy the enemy tanks.

Sometimes, though, you just want a little help in climbing the leaderboards, ranking up as fast as you can. To that end, we went straight to the publisher for these exclusive tips and tricks to help you take your game to the next level. Check them out below, and feel free to add in your own.

Normally a story about a stolen iPod touch wouldn’t be worthy of major news coverage. That changes, however, when the iPod touch in question is used to control its war veteran owner’s prosthetic hand.

The iPod touch belongs to Afghanistan vet Staff Sgt. Ben Eberle, 27, who lost both his right hand and two legs in a bomb explosion three years ago while on a tour of duty. The device features an app called i-limb, which allows Eberle to use his prosthetic hand.

The creator of minimalist text game A Dark Room has just released an intriguing new title entitled Gridland. Although the game has yet to arrive in the App Store, it is playable on iOS devices using Safari.

Gridland is a match-3 game, which requires players to make matches in order to gather resources and build buildings during the day — and then to fight off creatures at night. In other words, it’s every bit as “out there” as A Dark Room — and quite possibly as immersive as well.

Apple has updated its lineup for next month’s iTunes Festival London, adding several new names including Tony Bennett and Mary J. Blige, demonstrating just how wide-ranging the festival is in terms of its music.

The festival kicks off in September, taking place at the Roundhouse in London. As always, tickets are 100 percent free, although attendees will need to win competitions (organized by Apple and local partners) in order to get hold of them.

The current festival lineup can be seen below: