Cult of Mac

Offices get boring quickly, especially if it’s at work. Check out the video above for 5 great office hacks to bring some new life and tricks to your humble office.

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Today Apple released the fifth developer preview of OS X Yosemite, its next major OS release for the Mac coming later this year.

Like usual, there are some noticeable and not-so-noticable changes in the new version of Yosemite. Don’t worry about spotting them yourself, though. We’ve got you covered.

If you’re worried about noisy plane passengers being able to make calls in the air, the U.S. Department of Transportation is on your side.

The government agency is looking to ban all in-flight calls from cell phones, which would mean that every airline would have to comply with the rule. The other solution is that each U.S. airline gets to establish its own rule on the matter.

Each developer preview of iOS 8 brings new changes to Apple’s mobile operating system in preparation of it’s official fall release, and while the newly unleashed version Beta 5 boasts many bug fixes, some small new changes to the interface have been sprinkled throughout the new update.

In today’s video we go hands-on with iOS 8 Beta 5 and show off all the new tweaks and other additions the new version of iOS 8 has to offer, like accessing Spotlight quicker than ever before, optimization features for iCloud Photos, and so much more.

Take a look in the view above and subscribe to Cult of Mac TV on YouTube to ensure you catch all our latest videos.

Now that Apple has ceased development of Aperture, it’s time to start looking for alternative photo management and editing solutions. The obvious choice is Lightroom, which Adobe has committed to continue work on heavily in the future.

Adobe is working on a migration tool to take all of your Aperture data and bring it to Lightroom, but until then, the company has outlined how to make the switch on your own.

iOS and OS X weren’t the only platforms that got some Apple beta loving today. A new update for Apple TV beta 4 was seeded to developers as well this morning that comes with a long awaited UI makeover.

Apple still hasn’t completely done away with the grid of icons approach for Apple TV, but it has given the UI an iOS 7-style makeover with a new set of icons that are a lot flatter than their old counterparts.

Apple is putting the finishing touches on iOS 8 ahead of its fall release, and while previous betas brought some surprising new features, the release of iOS 8 beta 5 is mostly full of tiny tweaks, bug fixes and a few small new additions.

Most of the changes might go unnoticed by most users, but iOS 8 beta 5 has a few nice surprises that refine the iOS 8 experience that will make your iPhone feel new once its released in the fall.

Here are all the tiny changes Apple made in iOS 8 beta 5:

Microsoft’s plan to takeover the NFL with its Surface tablets hit a few snags during the debut of its new Sideline Viewing System at last night’s Hall of Fame game between the Giants and Bills.

As part of the new Sideline Viewing System for the NFL, Microsoft is flooding coaching staffs with special Surface Pro 2 units that are designed to replace binders of printed photos, but according to Buffalo Bills head couch Doug Marrone, his team didn’t get access to the new feature.

Along with the release of iOS 8 beta 5, Apple has seeded the newest OS X Yosemite beta build to developers.

OS X Yosemite 10.10 beta 5 is available via the Mac Dev Center or from the Mac App Store. A new build of Xcode Beta 5 wis also available in the Dev Center, along with new builds of Find My Friends, Find My iPhone, and Apple Configurator.

Yosemite brings a revamped UI to OS X along with a host of new features aimed at making your iPhone and Mac work smarter together. No official word from Apple on what’s inside the new preview but we’ll let you know what we find as soon as its installed.

Apple has released iOS 8 beta 5 as an over-the-air update for developers. The update comes after beta 4 was released two weeks ago.

Beta 5 also accompanies OS X Yosemite Developer Preview 5 in the Mac App Store and a new beta seed for the Apple TV.

Apple hasn’t said what’s new in the betas, but we’re downloading the updates now and we’ll have the usual roundup of changes and tweaks to show you shortly.

Marketing can be a risky business. Getting top conversion rates would be much easier if you could read the minds of your audience and almost will them to take action. That’s what The Ultimate Design Course To Increase User Engagement is all about.

The Ultimate Design Course To Increase User Engagement teaches you how to use psychology to maximize audience engagement. What does your audience fear? What do they love? What motivates them to take action? Right now, you can get this vital marketing knowledge for 91% off at Cult of Mac Deals, but only for a limited time.

First released in 2008, Bioshock remains, to this day, one of the most unforgettable first person shooters you can play. The game takes place in the dystopian city of Rapture, an underwater metropolis built upon the ocean floor so that it’s citizens can pursue Ayn Rand style objectivism and eugenics. Pretty soon, everyone’s DNA is “spliced,” they’re all crazy, and it’s total chaos.

It’s a great game, and you can already play it on the Mac, but I never thought I’d see Bioshock come to the iPad. But it very much appears I was wrong.

We all know that in China, clones of the latest iPhone go on sale long before Apple actually starts selling them. But what’s it actually like to own an iPhone 6 knockoff before the iPhone 6 is even available?

Up until the present, the various paintjobs of our phones have existed primarily as a means of personalization. In the near future, they could well be the way that our phones are charged.

A new study by the UK’s University of Sheffield is investigating the possibility of spray-painted solar cells which could be used to power anything from smartphones to electric cars.

While the energy generating effectiveness of paint-on solar cells was just one percent a couple of years ago, Sheffield University currently gets about 11 percent efficiency versus 19 percent at optimal performance.

Apple is set to open its second brick-and-mortar retail store in Turkey, according to Turkish website ElmaDergisi.

The store is allegedly planned to open this fall, around the same time as Apple’s long-awaited iPhone 6 is set to hit shelves. It will be located in Istanbul’s upmarket Akasya Shopping Center, a shopping mall known for its major brand stores.

I’m all about minimalist bags; paring down my kit to the bare essentials so I’m not bogged down when traipsing from place to place is a daily goal of mine. I’ve gone minimal with my wallet, my MacBook and the various digital and analog ephemera I need to carry with me as I go about daily tasks for work and at home.

There is a time, however, when you need to have a larger subset of your general kit. You might need that extra battery pack (or two), your MacBook Pro, both your iPads, a couple of backup hard drives, an external keyboard, a gaming mouse, a PlayStation Vita, headphones and (of course) all the associated wires and plugins that these items require. Oh, and maybe a water bottle, a wallet, an iPhone and a set of keys.

That’s the exact stuff I’ve got packed into an STM Quantum Messenger bag — and it fits handily, with room to spare.

Although Samsung’s commercials often mock Apple and its devices, the South Korean company has been known to use Apple products as its inspiration. In fact, it has been so inspired by iOS devices in the past that it was recently found guilty of ripping them off and forced to cough up $119 million in damages.

That doesn’t appear to have deterred Samsung from copying again, though. Leaked images of its upcoming Galaxy Alpha smartphone suggest the device could be the company’s biggest iPhone knockoff to date.

First debuted in November last year, the iPad Air is coming up on a year old. In Apple terms, that means it’s due for an upgrade, but we still don’t know what the iPad Air 2 will be. Will it be a spec bump, or will it be a redesign?

According to new leaks from China purporting to be the rear shell for the iPad Air 2, the correct answer is: “A little bit of column A, a little but of column B.”

Over the years, I’ve seen rumor after rumor that Apple would eventually abandon Intel chips in favor of ARM chips. And time after time, I’ve refuted those arguments, saying that a Mac running ARM processors is not likely to happen anytime soon.

But maybe I’m wrong. Former Apple executive Jean-Louis Gassée — himself a longtime skeptic of Apple’s transition to ARM chips for its desktop and laptop computers — says he’s recently been convinced, and even believes that Apple could release ARM-based Macs as soon as 2016.

While most of Square-Enix’s games for mobile tend to be ports of the developer’s past hits, it also occasionally releases original games too — often with spectacularly great results.

The latest of these games is set to Chaos Rings III, a sequel to 2012’s Chaos Rings II — coming to Android, iOS and PlayStation Vita this winter. Announced over the weekend on Famitsu, the game is set to arrive in Japan on October 16.

Another week of amazing deals is in the books, so we are highlighting some of the best to make sure you don’t miss out.

Unbelievably low prices can be had on The Productive Design Mac Bundle, The Sensordrone Bluetooth Sensor, over 5000 Adobe training videos, Twisted Wave, and The Kick. Do yourself a favor and check them out now.

Apple has a new TV ad out for the iPhone 5s, and it’s the fourth installment in its “You’re More Powerful Than You Think” campaign. The ads have previously shown people using the iPhone to do stuff like play music, workout, and parent.

Titled “Dreams,” the latest spot is a collection of ways people are using the iPhone around the world to make a real impact in the lives of others. Using a combination of hardware accessories and apps, the iPhone is seen helping doctors, firefighters, and more.

This week: now with over 300,000 followers, we welcome back professional Instagram’er Cory @WithHearts Staudacher to share his iPhone photo editing tips and reveal which camera apps he relies on daily. Also on the docket: why our cities deserve municipal internet; unlocking your iPhone gets legal (again); great changes on the horizon for Apple’s Podcasts app; and our musings on the freshly-updated 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pros.

Kick back and relax whilst we amuse you with 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.

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In Star Trek, the crew of the Enterprise would routinely beam down to a planet, pull out their trusty tricorders and scan the environment for a multitude of different things, like gas levels and air quality.

Now you can have something like a tricorder for yourself. The Sensordrone Bluetooth Sensor has 11 sensors packed into a tiny housing that collects real data on your surroundings, and it’s available at Cult of Mac Deals for only $149.